Human Behaviour
Books- Foundational
Axelrod R. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Superb, the basic book on the topic (on which there is now a huge and growing literature).
Ehrlich PR, Feldman SS. 1977. The Race Bomb: Skin Color, Prejudice, and Intelligence. New York: New York Times Book Co.
Shows that “racial” discrimination and prejudice is biologically nonsensical.
Olson M. 1971 (1965). The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
A classic.
Tversky A, Kahneman D. 1974. Judgement under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Science 185: 1124 – 1131.
Absolutely necessary reading for anyone interested in their own behavior or anyone elses!
Books- Recent
Cialdini RB. 2008. Influence: Science and Practice. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Key book for thinking about strategies for changing human behavior.
Diamond J. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
A classic – arguably the best popular volume explaining patterns of culture of the past quarter century.
Diamond J. 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York, NY: Viking.
Recent popular book on this key topic by a leading ecologist.
Ehrenreich B. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York, NY: Henry Holt.
A great book that will add an emotional understanding to your intellectual one of the plight of the working poor.
Ehrlich PR. 2000. Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Washington, DC: Island Press.
A broad overview of human behavior and its evolutionary roots, emphasizing that cultural rather than genetic evolution is the key to solving the human predicament, and telling you why.
Ehrlich PR, Ornstein RE. 2010. Humanity on a Tightrope: Thoughts on Empathy, Family, and Big Changes for a Viable Future. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
Psychological dimensions of many MAHB issues explained.
Grossman D. 1995. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.
On the human reluctance to kill in combat, and cultural attempts to change that.
Homer-Dixon T. 2006. The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization. Washington, DC.: Island Press.
A look at the human predicament by one of the world’s best analysts. His earlier books are excellent as well.
Klare MT. 2001. Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York, NY: Henry Holt.
The classic work – his later books are excellent as well.
Maalouf A. 1984. The Crusades through Arab Eyes. New York, NY: Schocken Books.
A good book to read when contemplating how to reach MAHB goals across cultural divides.
Marx GT, McAdam D. 1994. Collective Behavior And Social Movements: Process and Structure. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
A valuable brief text.
McAdam D, Tarrow S, Tilly C. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
A fine attempt to find the sorts of patterns social science MAHBsters should be seeking. Tilly, McAdam’s predecessor, was one of the leading and most productive sociologists of the 20th century working in diverse areas of MAHB interest from governance to social movements.
Norgaard K. 2011. Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. MIT Press.
Oreskes N, Conway EM. 2010. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Press.
Best work on the climate deniers and other “scientists” for hire.
Perrow C. 1999. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies (Revised). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
A classic on how the complex systems we have surrounded ourselves with are prone to catastrophic failure.
Perrow C. 2007. The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Important thoughts on how to make society more resilient.
Pirages DC, DeGeest TM. 2003. Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on Globalization. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
An excellent treatment that demonstrates that political scientists can contribute to understanding the environmental crisis.
Pirages D, Cousins K, eds. 2005. From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
An interesting revisit of the pioneering “Global 2000 Report to the President,” the first thing Ronald Reagan shredded when he took over the presidency and began his successful anti-environment campaign.
Snow DA, Soule SA. 2009. A Primer on Social Movements. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
A fine modern introduction.
Sapolsky R. 1997. The Trouble with Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament. New York, NY: Scribner.
A truly wonderful collection of essays – don’t miss the one of religious fundamentalism and OCD.
Tainter JA. 1988. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Not perfect, but the best technical work on the topic, so pertinent to today’s world.
Wolin SS. 2008. Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Spectre of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Powerfully argues that the corporate plutocracy is converting the U.S. to a brand new form of totalitarianism.
Articles- Recent
Steven Brechin. April 2012. Shaping US climate opinion. Nature Climate Change.
Exposure to scientific information cannot explain entirely the levels of public concern about global warming in the United States. Now research shows that US views on climate change are largely affected by the actions of political groups.
Ehrlich PR. 2009. Cultural evolution and the human predicament. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24: 409-412.
Ehrlich PR, Feldman, MW. 2007. Genes, environments & behaviors. Daedalus 136 (2): 5-12.
Brulle RJ, Young LE. 2007. Advertising, individual consumption levels, and the natural environment, 1900–2000. Sociological Inquiry 77: 522-542.
Ehrlich PR, Feldman MW. 2003. Genes and Cultures: What creates our behavioral phenome? Current Anthropology 44: 87-107.
Explains why genes are vastly overrated as determinants of everyday behavior.
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