Books Recommended by Steven Pinker
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The Nurture Assumption
Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
Judith Rich Harris
Source: "A grandmother from New Jersey uses genetics, ethnography, and child psychology to refute the dogma that parents shape their children's intelligence and personality." - Steven Pinker
36 Arguments for the Existence of God
A Work of Fiction
Rebecca Goldstein
Source: "A moving, hilarious, and intellectually deep novel about religion and atheism. Disclosure: I like this author’s fiction so much that I married her." - Steven Pinker
Atrocities
The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History
Matthew White
Source: "A good way to settle bets (who was worse, Genghis Khan or Hitler?), brush up your history, and marvel at the cruelty and stupidity of our species." - Steven Pinker
Whole Earth Discipline
Stewart Brand
Source: "An allusion to [the author]'s groundbreaking 'Whole Earth Catalog,' which merged technology with the counterculture and encouraged global consciousness." - Steven Pinker
The Evolution of Human Sexuality
Donald Symons
Source: "The founding document of evolutionary psychology, filled with insights about sex and the sexes, and more relevant than ever with #metoo." - Steven Pinker
One Two Three . . . Infinity
Facts and Speculations of Science
George Gamow
Source: "A delightful introduction to number theory, Einstein’s theory of relativity, higher dimensions, and other mathematical and scientific topics." - Steven Pinker
The Beginning of Infinity
David Deutsch
Source: "This 21st-century statement of the ideals of the Enlightenment offers fresh insight on a vast number of topics." - Steven Pinker
Enemies, a Love Story
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Source: "About a holocaust survivor who ends up with three wives. Every scene is a goldmine of insight about human nature." - Steven Pinker
The Blind Watchmaker
Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
Richard Dawkins
Source: "Perhaps the best display of expository scientific prose of the twentieth century." - Steven Pinker
The Mental Life of Modernism
Why Poetry, Painting, and Music Changed at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Samuel Jay Keyser
Source: "Fascinating, important new book by friend & former colleague." - Steven Pinker
Knowledge And Decisions
Thomas Sowell
Source: Steven Pinker recommended this book in the "Tribe of Mentors" book.
The Strategy of Conflict
Thomas C. Schelling
Source: Steven Pinker recommended this book in the "Tribe of Mentors" book.
The Science of Words
George A. Miller
Source: Steven Pinker recommended this book in the "Tribe of Mentors" book.
Retreat from Doomsday
The Obsolescence of Major War
John Mueller
Source: Steven Pinker recommended this book in the "Tribe of Mentors" book.
Clear and Simple as the Truth
Writing Classic Prose
Francis-Noël Thomas
Source: "Perhaps the best analysis of writing style." - Steven Pinker
The Bias That Divides Us
The Science and Politics of Myside Thinking
Keith E. Stanovich
Source: "This is the book for our era." - Steven Pinker
6 books