Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World

by Malcolm Potts, Thomas Hayden

Overview

As news of war and terror dominates the headlines, scientist Malcolm Potts and veteran journalist Thomas Hayden take a step back to explain it all. In the spirit of Guns, Germs and Steel, Sex and War asks the basic questions: Why is war so fundamental to our species? And what can we do about it?

Malcolm Potts explores these questions from the frontlines, as a witness to war-torn countries around the world. As a scientist and obstetrician, Potts has worked with governments and aid organizations globally, and in the trenches with women who have been raped and brutalized in the course of war. Combining their own experience with scientific findings in primatology, genetics, and anthropology, Potts and Hayden explain war's pivotal position in the human experience and how men in particular evolved under conditions that favored gang behavior, rape, and organized aggression. Drawing on these new insights, they propose a rational plan for making warfare less frequent and less brutal in the future.

Anyone interested in understanding human nature, warfare, and terrorism at their most fundamental levels will find Sex and War to be an illuminating work, and one that might change the way they see the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935251705
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	06/22/2010
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.46(w) x 9.04(h) x 1.24(d)

About the Author

Malcolm Potts, MB, BChir, PhD, FRCOG, is the Bixby Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. A graduate of Cambridge University and trained as an obstetrician and research biologist, his profession has taken him all over the world. Potts led a medical team into Bangladesh immediately after the War of Liberation in 1972, and he has worked in many other war-torn places including Vietnam and Cambodia, Afghanistan, Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Liberia, and Angola. His most recent books are Queen Victoria's Gene and Ever Since Adam and Eve: The Evolution of Human Sexuality.

Thomas Hayden is a freelance journalist who writes frequently about science, medicine, and culture. Formerly a staff writer at Newsweek and US News & World Report, his articles and reviews have appeared in more than 20 publications, including National Geographic, Nature, and The Washington Post. He is coauthor of On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story, a 2007 national bestseller. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and fellow writer, Erika Check Hayden.

Table of Contents

1. Sex and Violence 1
2. The War of Nature 17
3. The Missing Link 39
4. We Band of Brothers 63
5. Terrorists 99
6. Women and War 119
7. Raids into Battles 147
8. War and the State 175
9. War and Technology 213
10. War and the Law 241
11. Evil 265
12. The Future of War 283
13. Women and Peace 303
14. Stone Age Behaviors in the Twenty-First Century 333
15. C ivilization at Its Best 365
To the Reader 385
References 389
Index 411
About the Authors 457

What People are Saying About This

Randy Olson

In this impressively comprehensive treatment, Potts and Hayden step as far back as possible from the human race to assess the root causes of social upheaval. (Randy Olson, author and director, Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus)

Sean B. Carroll

Will transform your outlook on war, peace, and what needs to be done to secure a safer world. (Sean B. Carroll, author, Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest)

Jane Goodall

Potts and Hayden make an important contribution as they explore our evolutionary origins and make suggestions as to how human society might reduce warfare in the future. (Jane Goodall, primatologist and environmental activist)

Editorial Reviews

"Worth reading, and arguing about." --"The Toronto Star"

"In this impressively comprehensive treatment, Potts and Hayden step as far back as possible from the human race to assess the root causes of social upheaval." --Randy Olson, author and director, "Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus"

"Potts and Hayden make an important contribution as they explore our evolutionary origins and make suggestions as to how human society might reduce warfare in the future." --Jane Goodall, primatologist and environmental activist

"Will transform your outlook on war, peace, and what needs to be done to secure a safer world." --Sean B. Carroll, author, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" and "The Making of the Fittest"

From the Publisher

…with journalist Thomas Hayden, [Potts] offers a lively and highly readable account of the evolution of war and terrorism.
—The Washington Post

Melvin Konner