A review by toffishay
Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge by Judith Eve Lipton, David P. Barash

informative slow-paced

2.0

I understand what the authors are attempting to explore and I find it to be a worthy endeavor, but I really wanted more from this book. The explorations of the potential biology of revenge and retaliation were thorough and had, I felt, appropriate caveats. But the other perspectives were touched on far too lightly and with dated perspectives. <SPOILER> I was particularly disappointed by the psychiatric perspectives at the end of the book and an uncritical citation of Freakanomics <END SPOILER>. There are pieces of the book that I think are worthwhile, but I am more interested in following up on some other works in this same topic area.