This work investigates the validity of the biological determinist theory that human aggression is an innate, inescapable instinct. M. F. Ashley Montagu, a prominent anthropologist and social biologist, synthesizes cross-disciplinary evidence to challenge the prevailing mid-20th-century narrative that humans are inherently violent. He argues that human behavior is primarily a product of social conditioning and environmental factors rather than fixed genetic programming.

Experts recognize this text as a significant counter-argument to the biological determinism that dominated mid-century behavioral science. Readers frequently note the clarity of the author's prose and his ability to synthesize complex anthropological data for a broader audience.