Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present

This ambitious history of violence confronts the popularly held belief that we fear and vilify those who are different from us. Jacoby (The Last Intellectuals) suggests that the opposite is true: we turn to violence, as individuals or as nations, when differences begin to disappear. With assimilation comes the formation of larger, more homogeneous groups competing for the same limited resources. Most violence occurs within—not between—communities and over small differences. "We prefer the scenario of clashing civilizations," Jacoby explains, but distinctions between enemies are often so trivial that opposing groups, such as the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda, can't always tell their enemies from themselves. The author travels through 5,000 years of history, literature, and myth to make his persuasive point. The book brims with alternately entertaining and harrowing history lessons, but the anecdotes want for great authorial presence and commentary—much of the book reads like a collection of examples of fratricide and civil war sewn together. (Apr.)