In the revolutionary follow up to African Genesis, Robert Ardrey demonstrates that man obeys the same laws as do many other animal species, that the drive to control territory, specifically, rankles within our breasts and determines even the largest social phenomena. Family loyalty and responsibility, in men no less than in gibbons or beavers or robins, rests on joint attachment to a private territory. Morality - our willingness to make personal sacrifice for interests larger than ourselves - has its origins in dim evolutionary beginnings. Amid the resounding controversy surrounding African Genesis Ardrey published his second treatise. First published in 1966, The Territorial Imperative explores more deeply and incisively man’s evolutionary nature and threatens even more forcefully assumptions held dear. In a time when scientific dogma attributed to man either no instincts at all, or instincts too weak to be of significance, Ardrey’s conclusions raised an even greater storm. Like its predecessor, The Territorial Imperative is a work of wit, of literary wealth, of high adventure. Mr Ardrey takes his readers on far deeper excursions into the ancient animal world, and on far deeper penetrations of the human wilderness.

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The Territorial Imperative