Charles Kenny was mentioned in a Daily Mail article on the increase in optimist American books.
From the Article
Global economies may be in turmoil, and droughts and floods ravishing whole countries, but according to a cluster of new optimistic books from the U.S., the world is still progressing and actually doing very well.
The latest in a growing list of authors offering respite from the onslaught of gloomy headlines is Jesse Richards, whose book The Secret Peace suggests that the world is a nice place and getting better.
He points to statistics to prove his case such as a rising global life expectancy, a decline in the number of people killed in wars – and a jump in the number of people with mobile phones.
‘The world is better than you think. Not only is world peace inevitable, but for a lot of the world, it's already here,’ he says.
In addition to the book, Richards blogs regularly pointing out positive trends buried beneath good news, such as a decline in military spending.
Chiming in with Richards’ positive message is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.
In a 700-page survey of human violence, Pinker concludes that ‘We are living in the most peaceable era of our species’ existence’.
With statistics and graphs he ploughs through the long-held myth that deep-down human nature is fundamentally and irreparably violent.