I think it comes from the innumeracy of our journalistic and intellectual culture

Why the gloom [about the modern world]? Partly it's the result of market forces in the punditry business, which favours the Cassandras over the Pollyannas. Partly it arises from human temperament: as David Hume observed: 'The humour of blaming the present, and admiring the past, is strongly rooted in human nature, and has an influence even on persons endowed with the profoundest judgement and most extensive learning.' But mainly, I think it comes from the innumeracy of our journalistic and intellectual culture.

S. Pinker, The better angels of our nature (2011), 356

Democracy came too early to America

The historian Peter Spierenburg has provocatively suggested that 'democracy came too early' to America. In Europe, first the state disarmed the people and claimed a monopoly on violence, then the people took over the apparatus of the state, in America, the people took over the state before it had forced them to lay down their arms.

S. Pinker, The better angels of our nature (2011), 118

Elsewhere, in support of this thesis (which I suspect is true) Pinker highlights the differential rates of violent crime by regions of the US, where the North East looks a lot like Europe and the West and South, less so.

With the battle-ax, sir, with the battle-ax!

The journalist Steven Sailer recounts a exchange from early-20th-century England: 'A hereditary member of the British House of Lords complained that Prime Minister Lloyd George had created new Lords solely because they were self-made millionaire who had only recently acquired large acreages. When asked, "How dd your ancestor become a Lord?" he replied sternly, "With the battle-ax, sir, with the battle-ax!"

S. Pinker, The better angels of our nature (2011), 99

I note, perhaps hearteningly, that this is entirely, unsupported by proper references, as Sailer acknowledges here.

A few cavities, the odd abscess, and a couple if inches of height were a small price to pay for a fivefold better chance of not getting speared.

[C]ompared to hunter-gatherers, the first city dwellers were anemic, infected, tooth-decayed, and almost two and a half inches shorter. Some biblical scholars believe the story of the fall from the Garden of Eden was a cultural memory of the transition from foraging to agriculture: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.'

So why did our foraging ancestors leave Eden? For many it was never an explicit choice: they had multiplied themselves into a Malthusian trap in which the fat of the land could no longer support them, and they had to grow their food themselves. The states emerged only later, and the foragers who lived at their frontiers could either be absorbed into them or hold out in their own way of life. For those who had the choice, Eden may have been just too dangerous. A few cavities, the odd abscess, and a couple if inches of height were a small price to pay for a fivefold better chance of not getting speared.

S. Pinker, The better angels of our nature (2011), 68-9

Of the ninety-one detained, all but nine were shot

Of the 101 members of the supreme military leadership, all but ten were arrested; of the ninety-one detained, all but nine were shot. These included three of the five marshals of the Soviet Union and two of its admirals, as well as the entire senior air force personnel, every head of of every military district, and almost every military commander. The Red Army was brought to its knees.

P. Frankopan,, The Silk Roads (2015), 362

In 1500, there were around 500 political units in Europe; in 1900, there were twenty-five

The centuries that followed the emergence of Europe as a global power were accompanied by relentless consolidation and covetousness. In 1500, there were around 500 political units in Europe; in 1900, there were twenty-five.

P. Frankopan, The Silk Roads (2015), 260

How useful it is for leaders who have a view to posterity to patronise historians who write sympathetically of their age of empire

Blanket images of the mongols as barbaric destroyers are wide of the mark, and represent the misleading legacies of the histories written later which emphasised ruin and devastation above all else. This slanted view of the past provides a notable lesson in how useful it is for leaders who have a view to posterity to patronise historians who write sympathetically of their age of empire - something the Mongols conspicuously failed to do.

P. Frankopan, The Silk Roads (2015), 161

Even today regular greetings reference human trafficking

So widespread was slavery in the Mediterranean and the Arabic world than even today regular greetings reference human trafficking. All over Italy, when they meet, people say to each other, 'schiavo', from a Venetian dialect. 'Ciao', as it is more commonly spelt, does not mean 'hello'; it means 'I am your slave'

P. Frankopan, The Silk Roads (2015), 122

Around the middle of the seventh century, the future seemed easy to read. Christianity was on the march across Asia.

Around the middle of the seventh century, the future seemed easy to read. Christianity was on the march across Asia, making inroads at the expense of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Buddhism. Religions have always played off against each other in this region and learnt that they had to compete for attention. The most competitive and successful, however, turned out to be a religion born in the little town of Bethlehem. Given the progress that had been made over the centuries that followed the crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of Pontius Pilate, it should only have been a matter of time before the tentacles of Christianity reached the Pacific, linking the great ocean with the Atlantic in the west.

P. Frankopan,, The Silk Roads (2015), 62

A sign of how Christians improved standards in Persia and elsewhere in the east

This was to be welcomed, noted another writer [Eusebius], as a sign of how Christians improved standards in Persia and elsewhere in the east; 'Persians who have become his disciples no longer marry their mothers,' while those on the steppes no longer 'feed on human flesh, because of Christ's word which has come to them'. Such developments ought to be warmly welcomed, he wrote.

P. Frankopan, The Silk Roads (2015), 39