Source-oriented archive
This chapter-by-chapter collection preserves provenance and PDF navigation. The canonical browsing structure is the theme-first 40 Stories library; Theme Assignment Ledger records each story’s single primary home.
⬅️ Stories MOC · Book note: The Better Angels of Our Nature · Source PDF: The Better Angels of Our Nature PDF (file not included in this release)
Curated extraction
50 reusable stories and vignettes selected across all ten chapters. The extraction favors a concrete scene, choice, reversal, encounter, or experiment that can carry an argument; it excludes passing examples, hypothetical scenarios, and names without narrative action.
Evidence boundary
Pinker is the immediate source. Labels distinguish historical and archaeological accounts, personal recollection, experiments, literary or mythic illustrations, and retellings through other authors. These notes paraphrase the book and preserve source locators; they do not independently verify every account. The Christian Wirth entry explicitly preserves the Pinker → Jonathan Glover citation chain and the limits of what the passage establishes about the child.
Selection rule
A passage was retained when it contains a concrete narrative event and a transferable claim useful in writing, teaching, historical interpretation, or moral argument. PDF++ links use the PDF viewer’s page numbering, not printed-page labels.
Chapters and stories
Chapter 1 — A Foreign Country (4)
- Ötzi’s Cold Case — Archaeological reconstruction summarized by Pinker; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 26–27 (file not included in this release)
- Lindow Man’s Threefold Death — Archaeological episode and hypothesis; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF p. 28 (file not included in this release)
- The Unsoftened Grimm Tales — Literary examples, not historical event reports; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 49–50 (file not included in this release)
- Hamilton Chooses Honor over Survival — Historical episode; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 52 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 2 — The Pacification Process (3)
- Jane Goodall’s Disturbing Discovery — Reported primatological observations; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF pp. 71–72 (file not included in this release)
- The Andaman Islanders after the Tsunami — Historical report cited by Pinker; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF p. 94 (file not included in this release)
- Eating without Looking over One’s Shoulder — Reported testimony quoted by Pinker; Leadership, Power & Responsibility; PDF p. 96 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 3 — The Civilizing Process (4)
- A Penny Candle and a Killing — Historical court-account retold through Barbara Hanawalt; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 111 (file not included in this release)
- A Nose Cut Off for Another Person’s Adultery — Historical account retold through Valentin Groebner; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 112 (file not included in this release)
- Keith Moon and the Blurred Line between Rebellion and Violence — Biographical example in Pinker’s cultural argument; Discipline, Habits & Self-Mastery; PDF p. 171 (file not included in this release)
- The Boston Miracle and a Face-Saving Exit — Reported program and eyewitness account; Community, Cooperation & Connection; PDF pp. 189–191 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 4 — The Humanitarian Revolution (4)
- The Emperor Who Replaced People with Clay — Historical episode retold through James Payne; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF p. 204 (file not included in this release)
- Forced Confessions Expose Torture — Historical anecdotes reported through Pinker’s sources; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 207–208 (file not included in this release)
- Cruelty as Public Entertainment — Historical reports; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 215–216 (file not included in this release)
- Jean Calas and the Moral Force of a Witnessed Injustice — Historical episode; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF p. 218 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 5 — The Long Peace (4)
- Toynbee and Richardson Make Opposite Forecasts — Intellectual-biographical episode framing Pinker’s method; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 274–275 (file not included in this release)
- The Thanksgiving Turkey — Illustrative fable; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF p. 277 (file not included in this release)
- Kennedy and Khrushchev Untie the Knot — Historical episode drawing on Robert Kennedy and Jonathan Glover; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF pp. 371–372 (file not included in this release)
- “The Hunting Story” and the Ethical Warrior — Institutional teaching story recounted by Robert Humphrey; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 375–376 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 6 — The New Peace (5)
- Christian Wirth and the Jewish Boy — Pinker’s retelling of Jonathan Glover; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 453–454 (file not included in this release) · endnote 92, PDF p. 1005 (file not included in this release)
- Afonso Dhlakama Is “Wooed” into Peace — Mission member’s account quoted by Pinker; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 443 (file not included in this release)
- The Old Couple and the French Glass — Pinker’s retelling of Glover, cited in endnote 91; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF p. 453 (file not included in this release)
- Bread beside a Dead Man in Auschwitz — Pinker’s personal recollection; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF p. 471 (file not included in this release)
- Terrorist Violence That Destroys Its Own Cause — Historical examples synthesized from terrorism research; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF pp. 489–490 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 7 — The Rights Revolutions (9)
- Pinker’s Childhood Games of Pain — Pinker’s autobiographical recollection; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 528–529 (file not included in this release)
- A Photograph Becomes “Strange Fruit” — Historical and cultural episode; Communication, Persuasion & Truth; PDF pp. 536–537 (file not included in this release)
- Ruby Bridges Walks into School — Historical episode retold through an eyewitness; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 540–541 (file not included in this release)
- Three Afternoons in a Salmon-Colored Cadillac — Pinker’s report about a student; not independently verified in the note; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF p. 558 (file not included in this release)
- The Wagon Train Leaves the Girl Behind — Settler memoir quoted by Pinker; not independently verified in the note; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF p. 589 (file not included in this release)
- Mary Ellen Is Protected through the Animal-Cruelty Analogy — Historical child-protection episode as Pinker recounts it; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 602–603 (file not included in this release)
- The State’s Treatment of Alan Turing — Historical-biographical episode as Pinker interprets it; Justice, Mercy & Moral Courage; PDF pp. 619–620 (file not included in this release)
- Pinker Obeys Standard Practice and Kills a Rat — Pinker’s autobiographical confession; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 630–631 (file not included in this release)
- The President, the Fly, and the Humane Catcher — Contemporary press anecdote; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF p. 650 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 8 — Inner Demons (10)
- Catching Self-Deception in Two Ledgers — Reported experiment; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 679–680 (file not included in this release)
- One Conflict, Two Righteous Histories — Pinker’s comparative framing, not an adjudication of the conflicts; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 681–683 (file not included in this release)
- Phineas Gage Is “No Longer Gage” — Historical medical case with an explicit retelling caution; Discipline, Habits & Self-Mastery; PDF pp. 695–698 (file not included in this release)
- Nova Scotia’s Christmas Tree to Boston — Public tradition plus Pinker’s personal reflection; Community, Cooperation & Connection; PDF pp. 719–720 (file not included in this release)
- The Punch in Witness — Fictional illustration and autobiographical reaction; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 734 (file not included in this release)
- Matching Force Escalates Eighteenfold — Reported experiment; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF p. 742 (file not included in this release)
- Robbers Cave Repairs the Water Line — Classic field experiment as summarized by Pinker; later methodological and ethical debates are outside this extraction; Community, Cooperation & Connection; PDF p. 747 (file not included in this release)
- Sadat Speaks to the Israeli Parliament — Historical reconciliation episode interpreted through Long and Brecke; Conflict, Anger & Reconciliation; PDF pp. 750–751 (file not included in this release)
- Milgram’s Shock Machine Follows the Room — Classic laboratory studies as Pinker summarizes them; later methodological debates are outside this extraction; Judgment, Perception & Self-Knowledge; PDF pp. 768–771 (file not included in this release)
- Eleven Minutes of Applause — Historical anecdote retold through Solzhenitsyn; not independently verified in this note; Communication, Persuasion & Truth; PDF pp. 774–775 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 9 — Better Angels (5)
- Oxytocin in a Trust Game — Reported experiment; Community, Cooperation & Connection; PDF pp. 797–798 (file not included in this release)
- Taking Elaine’s Shocks — Reported experiment using a staged victim; Community, Cooperation & Connection; PDF pp. 803–804 (file not included in this release)
- The Children and the Marshmallows — Reported longitudinal experiments in Pinker’s 2011 synthesis; Discipline, Habits & Self-Mastery; PDF pp. 822–823 (file not included in this release) · PDF p. 834 (file not included in this release)
- The Forbidden Donut and the Hot Sauce — Reported ego-depletion experiment; extracted as Pinker’s evidence, not reassessed here against later replication literature; Discipline, Habits & Self-Mastery; PDF pp. 831–832 (file not included in this release)
- Odysseus Binds His Future Self — Mythic illustration; Discipline, Habits & Self-Mastery; PDF pp. 833–834 (file not included in this release)
Chapter 10 — On Angels’ Wings (2)
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi Survives Both Atomic Bombings — Historical-biographical episode reported by Pinker; Leadership, Power & Responsibility; PDF p. 936 (file not included in this release)
- Margaret Thatcher’s Handbagged Objection — Reported political anecdote; illustrative rather than causal evidence; Leadership, Power & Responsibility; PDF p. 937 (file not included in this release)
Source and related notes
- Source PDF (file not included in this release)
- Book note and chapter summaries
- Stories hub
- Story-library source register and editorial method