Title:
Why we fight
Author:
Publication Date:
2018
Publication Information:
London : Hurst & Company, 2018.
©2018
Physical Description:
xii, 311 pages ; 23 cm
ISBN:
9781849048897
Abstract:
Why are we willing to die for our countries? Does religion precipitate violence? Do pride, anger and vengeance lead to war? Can ideology persuade someone to blow themselves up? This book explores how tens of thousands of years of evolution have shaped our brains to fight, and not to fight. Drawing on insights gleaned as a soldier and a scholar, and a biologist, Mike Martin explains how the lives and deaths of our ancestors have shaped our behavior to propel us towards conflict, even as that option makes less and less sense.
Contents:
Evolution and the human mind -- Drives -- The subconscious -- Competition and status -- Escaping violence through belonging -- The growth of human groups -- Frameworks -- The conscious and reasoning brain -- Moral codes -- Belief in the supernatural -- Shared ideologies -- Reflections.
Language:
English
