Book of the year: Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
We are so used to seeing humans cynically as being selfish and governed by self-interest (which, of course, is true in notable cases as in Trump). On the contrary, Bregman suggests that most people are good, decent, kind, and altruistic and uses a mine of examples from the last 200,000 years of human history to advance his radical thesis. The result is a very convincing, positive read.
Along the way, he re-visits Lord of the Flies, the many soldiers who never try to kill their enemies in battle, the mystery of Easter Island, famous rigged experiments to ‘prove’ the selfishness and evil of participants, the death of Catherine Genovese, impressive prisons in Norway, and school practices.
All in all, it’s an amazing trip that will challenge anyone’s negative or cynical views of human behavior and others. I highly recommend what is a truly ground-breaking book by an important new Dutch researcher and scholar.