This one had the most logical arc of Van Booy's philosophy trilogy. I liked how it posited Karl Lorenz (aggression is innate to the human animal) against Richard Leakey (aggression is a cultural construct) and went from there. Interesting set of books—I reviewed the three of them at Like Fire. ( )

Why We Fight is a thought-provoking look at the reasons why we fight (and don’t fight), by looking at biology, evolution, religion, and the environment. It is amazing to me that words written thousands of years ago still ring true today. In this book you will find the works of Sophocles, Tacitus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, James Tissot, James Joyce, General George Paton, and others. Another great philosophical book, but perhaps my least favorite of the trilogy, which came as a surprise to me. ( )