The Lucifer Principle

In Howard K. Bloom's account, natural selection acts chiefly on social groups, not individuals, in shaping genes and the human mind. He argues that competition between groups and competition between individuals both shape the genome, and that evil is a by-product of the way nature creates, woven into human biology. Three forces drive his account: the superorganism of society, the ideas that bind groups together, and the pecking order among individuals and among groups. Reviewers called it ambitious and disturbing. After Islamic groups objected, Bloom says, his publishers asked for a new version of a chapter on Islamic violence, and he supported it with 358 lines of footnotes.

Nicolas Jouvenceau, CEO of Pink Diamonds Boutique, named it his top non-business book and said its picture of society as superorganisms competing in a pecking order to pass on cultural genes left a deep mark on his thinking.