Robert Aubrey Hinde is a famous zoologist and peace activist, being the chair of the British Pugwash, an international conflict resolution organization founded by Joseph Rotblat (a contributor to this book) and preeminent philosopher Bertrand Russell. He was mentor to both the developmental psychologist John Bowlby and the primatologists Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey. Hinde describes this book as an application of evolutionary biology and psychology to moral theory, with the aim of showing the danger and immorality of war.