Rutger Bregman

Rutger C. Bregman (born 26 April 1988) is a Dutch historian and author. He has published four books on history, philosophy, and economics, including Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World, which has been translated into thirty-two languages. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and the BBC. The Guardian has described him as the "Dutch wunderkind of new ideas" and by TED Talks as "one of Europe's most prominent young thinkers." His TED Talk, "Poverty Isn't a Lack of Character; It's a Lack of Cash," was chosen by TED curator Chris Anderson as one of the top ten of 2017.

Bregman was born in Renesse. His father is a Protestant minister, while his mother is a special needs teacher. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in history at Utrecht University in 2009. He earned his Master of Arts in history in 2012, partly at Utrecht and partly at the University of California, Los Angeles. His graduate studies were concentrated on cities, states, and citizenship. He was a member of the Christian student association SSR-NU.

Bregman thought of becoming an academic historian but began working as a journalist instead. He writes regularly for the online journal De Correspondent and was twice nominated for the European Press Prize for his work there. His articles have also been published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, Evonomics, and The Conversation.

Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World (Dutch title: Gratis geld voor iedereen) promotes a more productive and equitable life based on three core ideas which include a universal and unconditional basic income paid to everybody, a short workweek of fifteen hours, and open borders worldwide with the free exchange of citizens between all nations. It was originally written as a series of articles for the Dutch online journal De Correspondent.

In an interview with the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir in September 2017, Bregman said, "to move forward, society needs dreams, not nightmares. Yet people are caught in the logic of fear. Whether it is Trump, Brexit, or the last elections in Germany, they vote against the future and instead for solutions to replace it, believing the past was better based on a thoroughly mistaken view of the world: the world was worse before … Humanity is improving, conditions of life, work and health too. And it's time to open the windows of our minds to see it."

In September 2019, Bregman published Humankind: A Hopeful History (Dutch title: De meeste mensen deugen). He argues that humans are fundamentally mostly decent and that more recognition of this view would likely be beneficial to everyone, partly as it would reduce excessive cynicism. For example, if society was less adamant about the view that humans are naturally lazy, there would be less reason to oppose the widespread introduction of poverty mitigation measures like basic income. 

The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing from the findings of history, economics, psychology, biology, anthropology, and archaeology. Bregman's arguments include the assertion that in the state of nature debate, Rousseau, rather than Hobbes, was more correct about humanity's essential goodness. An English translation was published in May 2020. The paperback release was a New York Times Best Seller. In addition to praise, Humankind: Hopeful History has also received strong criticism. Various critics, for example, point to the book's lack of scientific content.