I have very mixed feelings about this book, but ultimately must give it a 3 (perhaps 3.5) star review even though my enjoyment factor was relatively low throughout.

There is a lot of sketchy stuff in the early sections that is most likely taken out of context and perhaps even disingenuous half truths may be peppered around here. I read this book for enjoyment and interest sake, so I'll leave any deep criticism for someone doing a more scholarly review.

The good stuff comes in around 75% of the way through the book, and for those of you who have read Better Angels: a good deal of it is a re-hash welcomes you through this 3/4 of a book introduction. Updated information and new inferences, sure; but you're still required to slog through it all. Up until this point I was wondering if my thoughts about what is important concerning the intellectual endeavours and Pinker's had diverged. I mean Blank Slate to me was a tour de force, but pushing to get through Better Angels, and now this in similar fashion: perhaps Pinker has found his niche and frankly, it's just not mine.

The last section though, when he finally gets to the point of the book, makes up for a lot of your perseverance. Many of his arguments here are well thought out, require enough of the earlier discussions to keep things self contained and really do make the case for the books subtitle.

If you actually go and read Darwin's The Origin of Species, you'll find that you know absolutely everything you need to know about the book already through the wisdom of the commons. Most of us have no need to get into the nuances of pigeon breeding. I think, in that sense, Enlightenment Now is a book designed for the common era. Necessarily edited in such a manner that could really be seen as pushing the argument over and over from different viewpoints, to persuade the public in general that this is an idea we all need to get behind—exactly how Darwin arranged Origin. To that end, if Enlightenment ideals continue to thrive in the coming years, perhaps people of 2100 will read this book and think it is an awful tomb of self-evident drivel. This is the point at which we can mark a decisive victory for the books arguments.