a process Pinker lauds as having pulled hundreds millions of people out of poverty.

It's a difficult case to make except with charts and graphs: survivors are here to tell us how bad things are, while those who died in the past may exist as little more than a data point on a chart that suggests things were not in fact 'better' long ago.

'Blame' is a tricky thing. 'Development'? 'Capitalism'? China remains perhaps the world's most powerful communist country, no more 'capitalist' than Hong Kong is an independent country. Many Westerners 'blame' China for something or other - and Chinese blame Americans too - but blame is a psychological experience often manipulated by players involved in a process - not a rational observation.

In terms of books that explore how that blame operates, and which reflect what I believe are your basic themes - one of my favorites is "Amity & Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America" by Eliza Griswold. It was not the book that I expected it to be, but far, far better.