Order and Anarchy: Civil Society, Social Disorder and War, Robert Layton, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. vi, 197.

All societies undergo periods of stress from time to time, whether caused by internal factors or by radical changes in their economic, political or other environments. Why do some make the necessary adjustments by peaceful political means with relatively little disruption of their underlying social order while others spiral into violence, social disorder and (not infrequently) inter-communal warfare? This is a question that has long engaged political theorists and in this short book Robert Layton reflects upon it from the perspective of an anthropologist. His subject is nothing less than the role of violence in human evolution.