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A review by libbysbookshelf
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
HUMANKIND: A HOPEFUL HISTORY by RUTGER BREGMAN
My husband and I work at the same school so every morning on our commute we listen to an audiobook. For the last few weeks we have been listening to, and discussing (and loving) this book by a Dutch writer.
We have learnt soo much! Rutger covers moments throughout history that most of us would be familiar with, but he looks at them in a new light. His aim — with this ambitious book — is to prove that humans are essentially kind. He looks at the holocaust, the murder of Kitty Genovese, psychology experiments by Milgram and Zimbardo, among many other events, and shows that a lot of what we think we know is wrong.
At one point he argues that we should stop watching, reading or listening to the news because journalists and news outlets have one desire and that is to keep a viewership and so they will often only report on stories from a point of view that is most shocking because that’s what sells a newspaper. We’re not always getting the whole story, though. And often the story we get is a more pessimistic one and definitely not a realistic one. You see, pessimism and realism often go hand in hand, but this book teaches you that to be kind and compassionate is in fact to be a realist.
This is one of those books that — when read and discussed well — can change the way you approach your own life. I would go as far as to say that this book has changed me. I know it’s written by a white guy, which is so not me, but I guess some of them are ok 😏
#book #humankind #rutgerbregman #nonfiction #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bookreader #bookreviewer
My husband and I work at the same school so every morning on our commute we listen to an audiobook. For the last few weeks we have been listening to, and discussing (and loving) this book by a Dutch writer.
We have learnt soo much! Rutger covers moments throughout history that most of us would be familiar with, but he looks at them in a new light. His aim — with this ambitious book — is to prove that humans are essentially kind. He looks at the holocaust, the murder of Kitty Genovese, psychology experiments by Milgram and Zimbardo, among many other events, and shows that a lot of what we think we know is wrong.
At one point he argues that we should stop watching, reading or listening to the news because journalists and news outlets have one desire and that is to keep a viewership and so they will often only report on stories from a point of view that is most shocking because that’s what sells a newspaper. We’re not always getting the whole story, though. And often the story we get is a more pessimistic one and definitely not a realistic one. You see, pessimism and realism often go hand in hand, but this book teaches you that to be kind and compassionate is in fact to be a realist.
This is one of those books that — when read and discussed well — can change the way you approach your own life. I would go as far as to say that this book has changed me. I know it’s written by a white guy, which is so not me, but I guess some of them are ok 😏
#book #humankind #rutgerbregman #nonfiction #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bookreader #bookreviewer