A bold and sweeping analysis that ranges widely through time, across geographies and through different kinds of human societies. A book of rare ambition and scope. * PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads * A compelling, thoughtful, nuanced, and ultimately hopeful new perspective on our history, present crises, and future potential . . . This book is a masterpiece - important, thought-provoking, and great fun to read. * KATE FOX, author of Watching the English * This fascinating book combines ground-breaking research with compelling storytelling to reveal how humanity's deepest tendencies towards conforming, believing and belonging have profoundly shaped our many histories and current realities . . . Profoundly thought-provoking - dive in. * KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics * Remarkably readable . . . A powerful argument that the behaviour change we need is more likely to occur if we make use of our evolved human nature, rather than seek to transcend it. * PETER SINGER, author of Animal Liberation * A profoundly important book, of breathtaking scope. Whitehouse shows how evolution sculpted our psychological make-up, how we overcame its limitations over the course of world history, and how we can wield this knowledge to face the challenges of the future. Full of deep insights into human nature, this is a work of compelling conviction by a master in the field. * LEWIS DARTNELL, author of Being Human *

Professor Harvey Whitehouse is Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. One of the world's leading experts on the evolutionary basis of human culture, Whitehouse has spent four decades studying some of the most extreme groups on earth- from the battlefields of the Arab Spring, via millenarian cults on Pacific islands, to violent football fans in South America. Along the way, he has undertaken research at some of the world's most important archaeological sites, brain-scanning facilities, and child psychology labs - all with a view to pioneering a new, scientific approach to the study of human society. Whitehouse's work has featured in the Telegraph, Guardian, Scientific American and New Scientist, and he has delivered talks at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. He lives in Oxford.