In an intellectual landscape in which bleak and pessimistic takes on human nature are the norm, Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History emerges as an unusual counter-narrative. Bregman, a Dutch historian and journalist, offers a multi-disciplinary analysis that employs historical accounts, psychological research, and an array of real-world case studies. Since its publication in 2019, the book has achieved notable influence, reverberating across academic and social discussions. It underpins its narrative with a straightforward thesis—that human beings have an innate tendency toward kindness and cooperative behavior.

This guide is based on the 2020 Little, Brown and Company English Language Translation hardback.

Summary

At the heart of this academic venture is the question of what is the essential, core disposition of Homo sapiens as a species. To provide an answer, Bregman embarks on a scholarly journey that traverses examples from across time and around the world. He scrutinizes the history of Easter Island, a society often cited as a cautionary tale of resource depletion and societal collapse. Namely, Bregman argues that the prevailing narrative is distorted, offering alternative interpretations based on more recent archeological findings and historical analyses.

At the same time, Bregman presents the reader with a modern-day narrative that serves as a foil to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. By recounting the true story of a group of young men stranded on an uninhabited island, he contends that the outcome diverged starkly from Golding’s grim tale. The young men in reality collaborated and survived, which Bregman uses to bolster his assertion of a natural human predisposition toward cooperative conduct even under trying circumstances.

Additionally, Bregman confronts the conclusions of well-known experiments that have shaped people’s understanding of human behavior for decades. The Stanford Prison Experiment, led by Philip Zimbardo, and Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments are subjected to a close analysis. Bregman highlights the methodological flaws and ethical considerations that compromise the validity of their condemning conclusions about human nature. He calls into question the narratives that have become a mainstay of academic discourse, suggesting that these flawed experiments have perpetuated a skewed view of human nature that needs updating.

The book serves as a constructivist effort as well. Bregman introduces the reader to less celebrated but important work by psychologists such as Alexander Haslam and Stephen Reicher. These researchers offer experiments that indicate individuals are, contrary to popular belief, more likely to intervene in emergent situations. Their positive findings act as a counterbalance to the grim implications of earlier, more pessimistic experiments.

The book ventures into morally and emotionally charged territory as Bregman probes the historical annals of World War II. Contradicting political theorist Hannah Arendt’s famous concept of the “banality of evil,” Bregman scrutinizes Adolf Eichmann’s trial and extracts alternative explanations from contemporary research. He cautions against the simplistic notion that perpetrators of heinous acts are merely unthinking cogs in a bureaucratic machine. Such interpretations, he argues, serve to obscure more complex ideological and psychological factors that contribute to the commission of atrocities.

Bregman explores how societal structures and systems exert significant influence on human behavior. Beginning with the agricultural revolution, he outlines how the advent of organized farming facilitated the establishment of hierarchical social structures, thus marking a considerable deviation from the egalitarian and cooperative norms characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies. Bregman critiques modern economic paradigms, corporate practices, and urban designs, advocating for structural shifts that favor cooperation over competition as a way to engender a more harmonious coexistence.

Bregman’s argument culminates in an exploration of the policy implications of his thesis. Policies rooted in distrust, surveillance, and punitive measures, he contends, are not merely ineffective but actively counterproductive. Such approaches serve to perpetuate societal divisions and antagonisms, thereby validating their own flawed premises in a self-fulfilling cycle of negativity.

The book serves as a pivotal contribution to an ongoing dialogue concerning the essence of human nature. By deconstructing outdated notions and offering a less common counterpoint, the book invites its audience to engage in a reassessment of the narratives and frameworks that shape people’s understanding of themselves and their interactions with others.