This work investigates whether human aggression is an innate biological imperative or a product of environmental and experiential factors. Ashley Montagu, a noted anthropologist and social biologist, challenges the deterministic views popularized by mid-20th-century ethologists. He posits that human behavior is not hard-wired by instinct but is instead the result of complex interactions between genetic potential and the social environment in which an individual develops.

Experts recognize this text as a significant counter-argument to the biological determinism prevalent in mid-century behavioral science. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's rigorous commitment to his social-anthropological framework.