One Planet, One People
Subtitle: Beyond "Us vs. Them"
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: September 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 149
ISBN-13: 9781591022336
Subjects: Racism & racial discrimination; Social history; Peace; Social Science; Sociology; Minority Studies - Race Relations; Sociology - General; Evolutionary psychology; Internationalism; Social evolution
First sentence: This book is really two books, dealing with different subjects, and cobbled together by the fact that human societies grow over time and evolve in the general direction of greater complexity.
Description: "In this overview of the evolution of human society, Carl Coon argues that the twenty-first century will witness a crucially important and difficult transition for the human race. Blending the disciplines of anthropology and evolutionary psychology with over thirty years of experience in the diplomatic corps, Coon traces the evolution of the human tendency to divide others into two groups, "us versus them." People tend instinctively to behave altruistically toward members of their own in-group and to react with suspicion, or even hostility, toward outsiders. He points out that complex human societies became possible only when cultural attitudes encouraged individuals to define their in-groups in more expansive ways.

Thus, small, kin-based bands grew into villages, kingdoms, and eventually, the modern nation-state, Today, he argues, we have reached a stage where the whole world must be viewed as "us," for only a united world community can cope with current global challenges."--Jacket.