Creatures of Cain The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America / Erika Lorraine Milam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Milam, Erika Lorraine, 1974- author.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War (1945-1989).

Sociobiology.

Science--Philosophy.

Humanity.

Human behavior.

Evolution (Biology).

Human evolution.

Philosophical anthropology.

Social aspects.

Violence.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 398 pages) : illustrations, map

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

[2019] Princeton : Princeton University Press,

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

After World War II, the question of how to define a universal human nature took on new urgency. Creatures of Cain charts the rise and precipitous fall in Cold War America of a theory that attributed man's evolutionary success to his unique capacity for murder.Drawing on a wealth of archival materials and in-depth interviews, Erika Lorraine Milam reveals how the scientists who advanced this "killer ape" theory capitalized on an expanding postwar market in intellectual paperbacks and widespread faith in the power of science to solve humanity's problems, even to answer the most fundamental questions of human identity. The killer ape theory spread quickly from colloquial science publications to late-night television, classrooms, political debates, and Hollywood films. Behind the scenes, however, scientists were sharply divided, their disagreements centering squarely on questions of race and gender. Then, in the 1970s, the theory unraveled altogether when primatologists discovered that chimpanzees also kill members of their own species. While the discovery brought an end to definitions of human exceptionalism delineated by violence, Milam shows how some evolutionists began to argue for a shared chimpanzee-human history of aggression even as other scientists discredited such theories as sloppy popularizations.A wide-ranging account of a compelling episode in American science, Creatures of Cain argues that the legacy of the killer ape persists today in the conviction that science can resolve the essential dilemmas of human nature.

Contents:

Part I. The ascent of man. Humanity in hindsight ; Battle for the Stone Age ; Building citizens

Part II. Naturalizing violence. Cain's children ; The human animal ; Man and beast

Part III. Unmaking man. Woman the gatherer ; The academic jungle ; The edge of respectability

Part IV. Political animals. The white problem in America ; A dangerous medium ; Moral lessons

Part V. Death of the killer ape. The new synthesis ; The old determinism ; Human nature.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-376) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780691210438

0691210438

9780691185095

0691185093

OCLC:

1059350896