Ultrasociety : how 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on Earth

Description

"There aren't many highly cooperative species--but they nearly cover the planet. Ants alone account for a quarter of all animal matter. Yet the human capacity to work together leaves every other species standing. We organize ourselves into communities of hundreds of millions of individuals, inhabit every continent, and send people into space. Human beings are nature's greatest team players. And the truly astonding thing is, we only started our steep climb to the top of the rankings--overtaking wasps, bees, termites and ants--in the last 10,000 years. Genetic evolution can't explain this anomaly. Something else is going on. How did we become the ultrasocial animal? Follow the evolutionary scientist Peter Turchin on a epic journey through time. From stone-age assassins to the orbiting cathedrals of the space age, from bloodthirsty god-kings to India's first vegetarian emperor, discover the secret history of our species--and the evolutionary logic that governed it all." -- Cover, p. [4]. Read more... Abstract: "There aren't many highly cooperative species--but they nearly cover the planet. Ants alone account for a quarter of all animal matter. Yet the human capacity to work together leaves every other species standing. We organize ourselves into communities of hundreds of millions of individuals, inhabit every continent, and send people into space. Human beings are nature's greatest team players. And the truly astonding thing is, we only started our steep climb to the top of the rankings--overtaking wasps, bees, termites and ants--in the last 10,000 years. Genetic evolution can't explain this anomaly. Something else is going on. How did we become the ultrasocial animal? Follow the evolutionary scientist Peter Turchin on a epic journey through time. From stone-age assassins to the orbiting cathedrals of the space age, from bloodthirsty god-kings to India's first vegetarian emperor, discover the secret history of our species--and the evolutionary logic that governed it all." -- Cover, p. [4] Content: The puzzle of ultrasociality : from Göbekli Tepe to the International Space Station -- Destructive creation : how cultural evolution creates large, peaceful, and wealthy ultrasocieties -- The cooperator's dilemma : selfish genes, 'greed is good,' and the Enron fiasco -- Cooperate to compete : what team sports teach us about cooperation -- 'God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal' : how early humans suppressed alpha males -- The human ways of war : war as a force of destructive creation -- The rise of god-kings : the alpha male strikes back -- The iron law of oligarchy : why power inevitably corrupts -- The pivot of history : the spiritual awakening of the Axial Age -- Zigzags of human evolution, and the science of history.