Ronald F. Inglehart - Cultural Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 2018) ***½

In May of this year, professor Ronald F. Inglehart passed away. "Cultural Evolution" is his last book, a sweeping overview of his "World Values Survey" that he founded and that gives insights into the values of people in more than 100 countries over several decades, and often even more. 

In the 70s he wrote "The Silent Revolution" about the intergenerational change of values between parents and their children. The data in this book clearly show that people's values are largely shaped by their economic situation. People who live in survival mode, will be more focused on their in-group, more nationalist and more intolerant to other groups. People who do not live in a survival mode, have a more tolerant view on other people. Inglehart looks at intergenerational differences, democratic differences (such as the possibility for 'Self Expression'). He analyses religion and its impact on values, the different situation of ex-communist countries with Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. He also sees income inequality in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom as some of the reasons for the rise in populism and intolerance. The evolution is not linear but evolves in jumps. 

The great value of this book is also somehow its weakness: there is a graph on every page, with fascinating differences of how countries score on different values based on their economic, democratic or religious situation, but at the same time this somehow does not make for fluent reading. Nevertheless, the book is hopeful for humanity. We can only hope that the trends towards more democracy and more equality will continue for all of us.