Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, Edward Wilson demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the animals with whom we share this planet. At least 17 of these species—including the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp—have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation. Braiding 21st-century scientific theory with lyrical biological and humanistic observations, Wilson offers here "a magisterial history of social evolution, from clouds of midges or sparrows to the grotesqueries of ant colonies" (Kirkus Reviews).