20,000 years ago, the average person stood a 10-20% chance of dying violently. Today, the chance is under 1%. We have cut rates of violent death by 90% by creating large organisations that impose peace; but the main method for creating these organisations has been war. In effect, violence has slowly been putting itself out of business. The broad trends suggest that this process will probably continue.

Ian Morris is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2015-16.

Professor Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre.

LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

This event is part of Lectures+, a collaboration between LSE SEAC and LSESU UN Society that seeks to enhance the experience of public events at LSE for students, speakers and guests, and will feature an element of interactive engagement between Professor Ian Morris and the audience. To participate, please download ResponseWare (Android or iOS) to your internet capable device ahead of the event.

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Podcasts & Videos are now available online for many events from the 2016 LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 'Utopias' which took place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February. LSE’s 8th Literary Festival explored the power of dreams and the imagination and the importance of idealism, dissidence, escapism and nostalgia, as well as the benefits of looking at the world in different ways with speakers including David Aaronovitch, AC Grayling, Robert Harris, Tom Holland, Margaret Macmillan, Anna Pavord and Zoe Williams.

Slides

A copy of Professor Ian Morris' powerpoint presentation is available to download. Download 'Each Age Gets the Bloodshed it Needs: 20,000 years of violence' (pdf).

Podcast

A podcast of this event is available to download from Each Age Gets the Bloodshed it Needs: 20,000 years of violence

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