Why do we do what we do? Behave is at once a dazzling tour and a majestic synthesis of the whole science of human behaviour. Brought to life through simple language, engaging stories and irreverent wit, it offers the fullest picture yet of the origins of tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, morality and free will, war and peace. Robert Sapolsky's ingenious method is to move backwards in time from the moment at which a behaviour occurs, layer by layer through the myriad influences that led to it.

The behavior -- One second before -- Seconds to minutes before -- Hours to days before -- Days to months before -- Adolescence: or, Dude, where's my frontal cortex? -- Back to the crib, back to the womb -- Back to when you were just a fertilized egg -- Centuries to millennia before -- The evolution of behavior -- Us versus them -- Hierarchy, obedience, and resistance -- Morality and doing the right thing, once you've figured out what that is -- Feeling someone's pain, understanding someone's pain, alleviating someone's pain -- Metaphors we kill by -- Biology, the criminal justice system, and (oh, why not?) free will -- War and peace.