Roots of War and Terror

In The Roots of War and Terror, psychiatrist Anthony Stevens provides insights into the nature and origins of armed conflict, locating the problem primarily in the psychology and anatomy of the human male. The evolved propensities responsible for warlike behaviour, essentially unchanged since Palaeolithic times, continue to prompt men to seek aggressive confrontation in groups, motivating modern soldiers and terrorists, armed with weapons of unprecedented destructiveness, to slaughter their enemies in the same spirit as Stone Age warriors.' This is an indispensable work for anyone wishing to understand the psychological basis of war and terror, or hoping to discover ways in which the unimaginable catastrophe of nuclear or biological warfare may be averted.