IAN MORRIS

Since 1914, we have endured world wars, genocides and government-sponsored famines, not to mention civil strife, riots and murders. Altogether, we have killed a staggering 100 million to 200 million of our own kind. But over the century, about 10 billion lives were lived — which means that just 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population died violently. Those lucky enough to be born in the 20th century were on average 10 times less likely to come to a grisly end than those born in the Stone Age.

Development has to rise if population is going to increase, Otherwise people will starve and all kinds of other problems.

Overall, for 99 years, the planet grew more peaceful and prosperous under Britain’s eye.

He [Norman Angell] wrote these words in 1910. One politician after another lined up to praise the book. Four years later, the same men started World War I.

Geography determines social development …. But geography may be losing much of its meaning.

Everything we have learned in the last 15,000 years will be swept away in the coming years…. The next hundred years will produce more changes than have taken place in the last 100,000 years. Indeed, the last 100 years have produced more change than the last 100,000 years.

We have already broken the link between food production and population. This will soon be complete.

To people in virtually any age before our own, the only argument that mattered was between extremely small government and no government at all. Extremely small government meant there was at least some law and order; no government meant that there was not.

War may well be the worst way imaginable to create larger, more peaceful societies, but the depressing fact is that it is pretty much the only way.

People almost never give up their freedoms — including, at times, the right to kill and impoverish one another — unless forced to do so; and virtually the only force strong enough to bring this about has been defeat in war or fear that such a defeat is imminent.

Everything we have learned in the last 15,000 years will be swept away in the coming years…. The next hundred years will produce more changes than have taken place in the last 100,000 years. Indeed, the last 100 years have produced more change than the last 100,000 years.

Geography determines social development …. But geography may be losing much of its meaning.

Development has to rise if population is going to increase, Otherwise people will starve and all kinds of other problems.

We have already broken the link between food production and population. This will soon be complete.

People almost never give up their freedoms — including, at times, the right to kill and impoverish one another — unless forced to do so; and virtually the only force strong enough to bring this about has been defeat in war or fear that such a defeat is imminent.

To people in virtually any age before our own, the only argument that mattered was between extremely small government and no government at all. Extremely small government meant there was at least some law and order; no government meant that there was not.

About 10,000 years ago, the winners of wars began incorporating the losers into larger societies. The victors found that the only way to make these larger societies work was by developing stronger governments; and one of the first things these governments had to do, if they wanted to stay in power, was suppress violence among their subjects.

War may well be the worst way imaginable to create larger, more peaceful societies, but the depressing fact is that it is pretty much the only way.

Since 1914, we have endured world wars, genocides and government-sponsored famines, not to mention civil strife, riots and murders. Altogether, we have killed a staggering 100 million to 200 million of our own kind. But over the century, about 10 billion lives were lived — which means that just 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population died violently. Those lucky enough to be born in the 20th century were on average 10 times less likely to come to a grisly end than those born in the Stone Age.

Overall, for 99 years, the planet grew more peaceful and prosperous under Britain’s eye.

He [Norman Angell] wrote these words in 1910. One politician after another lined up to praise the book. Four years later, the same men started World War I.