Us and Them

David Berreby's Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind covers an important topic -- how people divide themselves into groups by race, religion, nationality, etc., and the effects of that grouping. However, the book as a whole was a disappointment. He spends chapters going over basic points, such as the arbitrariness of the way societies categorize people and consider the various categories, along with the changing nature of those categories across cultures and over time. A less well-read audience would probably appreciate the book more.