Why do people behave in such unreasonable, ineffective ways? Why do we have such a difficult time getting along?
Renowned science writer L. Sprague de Camp explains that some of humankind's counter-productive and self-destructive qualities are a logical result of humans spending over a million years as members of foraging bands wandering through the African savannah, scrounging for food, grubbing for edible roots, and chasing other scavengers away from the kills of abler predators. It is in these activities that we see the highly competitive nature of the human being, and our tendency to view others as adversaries. De Camp examines the global "wrong-headedness" of we humans by considering the qualities that served as survival traits in our primitive past. This book is social anthropology at its best!
Sprague de Camp is the author of over I0O books in a variety of fields, including history, science, science fiction, and even verse: among them are The Fringe of the Unknown, Geomythology, The Day of the Dinosaur, The Reluctant King, and many more.
266 pages Publication date 25th January, 1996