RULE MAKERS, RULE BREAKERS

Narrator Katherine Fenton's vocal personality makes listening to this audiobook interesting without straying too far from the documentary reading style that typically works well with social science titles. With few exceptions, her phrasing and vocal clarity make this a seamless, fast-moving experience. The author shows how tribes, states, and countries develop rules of conduct that are either tight or loose, thus having a huge impact on how people behave. The reasons for the clean streets, low crime, and intolerance of deviance found in tight cultures can involve factors such as geography, weather, threat of natural and man-made disasters, and population density. The author provides a fair and balanced look at how culture can affect a society's acceptance of creativity, ethnic diversity, sexual expression, and even an unlikely political candidate. T.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2018]