Why Humans Fight

Why Humans Fight examines the proximate social dynamics that produce close-range violence, combining empirical case studies with comparative historical sociology to explain how collective violence emerges and is organized.

Malešević analyzes the interplay between individual motivations, micro-level interactions, and broader organizational structures that facilitate combat and coercion.

The book argues that patterns of fighting are shaped by social institutions, rituals, and political contexts rather than being reducible to innate human aggression alone.

It integrates theory with historical evidence to illuminate why groups engage in sustained violence and how social orders adapt.

The work has been influential in sociology and war studies for reframing violence in relational and organizational terms.