Why Men? A Human History of Violence and Inequality

How did humans, a species that evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, develop societies of enforced inequality? Why did our ancestors create patriarchal power and warfare? Did it have to be this way?

Elites have always called hierarchy and violence unavoidable facts of human nature. Evolution, they claim, has caused men to fight, and people--starting with men and women--to have separate, unequal roles. But that is bad science.

Why Men? tells a smarter story of humanity, from early behaviors to contemporary cultures. From bonobo sex and prehistoric childcare to human sacrifice, Joan of Arc, Darwinism and Abu Ghraib, this fascinating, fun and important book reveals that humans adapted to live equally, yet the earliest class societies suppressed this with invented ideas of difference. Ever since, these distortions have caused female, queer and minority suffering. But our deeply human instincts towards equality have endured.

This book is not about what men and women are or do. It's about the privileges humans claim, how they rationalize them, and how we unpick those ideas about our roots. It will change how you see injustice, violence and even yourself.

Nancy Lindisfarne has done ground-breaking work in the anthropology of gender and masculinity. She taught for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Her most recent book, written in collaboration with Richard Tapper, is Afghan Village Voices: Stories from a Tribal Community.

Jonathan Neale studied anthropology at the London School of Economics and did fieldwork in Afghanistan. He is now a professional writer of plays, novels, history and nonfiction. He worked as an abortion counsellor for ten years, an HIV counsellor for six years, and a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University for eleven years. His most recent book is Fight the Fire: Green New Deals and Global Climate Jobs.