The Third Chimpanzee

Jared Diamond points out that humans share about ninety-eight percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, then asks what the small remainder explains. Ranging across evolution, language, art, agriculture, and warfare, he argues that the same traits that let humans dominate the planet also give them a unique power to destroy it and themselves. An early, wide-angle version of themes he would later expand, the book is both hopeful and sobering.