Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind — By David Berreby
An interesting look at the how (and sometimes why) the human mind thinks about other human beings– specifically, how we divide ourselves into groups, and then deal with the issues of who is in and who is out. The book draws from history, neuroscience, psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and other fields.
Although overlong, rambling, and lacking in any particular thesis or conclusion, I found the book very readbale and thought-provoking. There are a lot of interesting examples here.
I found myself referring back and forth to the notes a lot, and ended up with a list of other books and articles that I want to follow up on. And that for me is one way I rate a successful book– not does it satisfy my need to know about something, but does it lead me to other interesting things.
Pursuits: Elizabeth Thomsen 