Part A (evolution and human nature)

Part B (gender and class society)

Terry Leahy 2025

Foreword

This is a draft of these chapters. This book is my biggest departure from academic style so far. I have not added reference lists yet, though I may do so. I have rarely used quotations and mostly spoken in my own voice. The chapters are all very short. I have not yet written a concluding chapter for this book, though in many ways the conclusions are pretty obvious.

The chapters of Riddles of History follow the podcasts that are on Buzzsprout and other podcast hosts. System Change Made Simple. Those podcasts also include the elements of my book, System Change for a Liveable Future. That book is available on my R’Gate site and on www.gifteconomy.au, and I am trying to get a publisher. With no success so far! This book on the riddles of history broadens out to look at the whole of human history. Part A that I am releasing here is on human nature, evolution and aggression. Are we innately competitive and does that explain hierarchical social organisations? There are four chapters on that. Part B that I have also finished and am releasing now is on gender. What is patriarchy, how does it happen and how does it relate to class society? This part B also looks at the way in which patriarchy, class society and environmental damage link up. There are 14 chapters in Part B.

I will not be worrying about repetition when the sequence of chapters suggests the same content needs to be repeated to make a different point. In particular, the chapter on toxic masculinity will have one version in Part A and another in Part B.

I will be writing part C on class society next. Again, following issues of my podcast series. Hopefully that will be finished by the end of 2025.

I would not mind a publisher for Riddles of History, but I am not holding my breath.

Part A: Human Nature and Aggression

Chapter One: Human nature and system change

Chapter Two: On aggression

Chapter Three: The struggle for survival?

Chapter Four: Toxic masculinity

Part B: Gender

Chapter Five: What is patriarchy?

Chapter Six: Why patriarchy happens

Chapter Seven: The psychology of men

Chapter Eight: Patriarchy and nature in Indigenous societies

Chapter Nine: Patriarchy and nature in class societies

Chapter Ten: Nature and gender in recent media

Chapter Eleven: Ecofeminism now

Chapter Twelve: Class politics versus ecofeminism

Chapter Thirteen: Intersections of capitalism and patriarchy

Chapter Fourteen: Liberal feminism and the socialist critique

Chapter Fifteen: Women, witches and capitalism in Europe

Chapter Sixteen: Women’s resistance to capitalist colonialism