The forces that shape our history are always contentious, yet our fascination with what drives the actions of the human race is inexhaustible. In 'Guns, Germs, and Steel', Jared Diamond proposed one set of forces; Willie Thompson, in 'Work, Sex, and Power', suggests a far more radical and fundamental trio. Deploying decades of experience as a historian, Thompson re-establishes a materialist narrative of the entire span of human history, drawing on a vast range of contemporary research.