Could human nature be changing? It sounds unbelievable. History is crammed with conflict, often on a grand scale. Isn’t the propensity for violence simply hardwired into our brains? The late Colin Wilson, author of 1950s classic The Outsider, thought that we are actually, as a species, becoming more civilised, and he used the last of his energy to expound his ideas in this book, which has been completed by his son, Damon. Noting that statistics for violent crime are falling across the world, Wilson wondered what it meant, and here he and Damon look far back into history, examining the causes of violence and asking whether the problem is not that it’s innate but that it’s been marshalled and exploited by vested interests and social constructs. Challenging accepted views about our species, it’s a fascinating analysis, although it seems, of course, overly optimistic. Still, at the end of his days, Wilson should be allowed to go out on a hopeful note.