Aimee Semple McPherson and the Making of Modern Pentecostalism, 1890-1926, by Charles H. Barfoot,Equinox Publishing, 2011, xxxi + 640 pp. ISBN 978 1 84553 166 9, US$80.00 (hbk)

In this book Norenzayan maintains that the mechanisms that make possible cooperative behavior among members of hunter-gatherer bands and tribal societies cannot account for what he calls the ‘scaled-up’ cooperation of humans in cities and states. Only the fear of being watched by an omnipotent and omniscient supernatural being who is able and willing to punish those who do not play fair can account for the emergence of the ultrasociality on which complex societies are based. The author shows here that neither the experimental nor historical evidence he brings forward supports that claim.