For famed anthropologist Ashley Montagu, our innate nature is not evil but good, the traditional idea of original sin having done much to underlie man's malfunctionings. In these stimulating essays, a cross between an Ethical Culture Sunday sermon and a schoolmasters devout belief in educability, Mr. Montagu runs the sociological gamut: prenatal influences mix with value determinants, psycho-dynamic factors run ragged right behind beatniks and the bomb. Key points: to live as if to live and love were one is the only true religion; wars are caused by the collective nervous breakdowns of nations; babies must be born at home since hospitals identify with sickness and pregnancy is a joy; individualism is a pathogenic myth and so is the survival of the fittest; competition leads to intrapersonal inconsistencies, i.e. we love our neighbors as ourselves and yet compete with them tooth and nail all the time; a baby wants to love and be loved and if this is thwarted he will be unable to love as child or adult. To some these so-called scientific statements are mere soporifics; to others they are as meaningful and momentous as the faithful consider Mr. Montagu to be. The latter should have a field day with Humanization of Man.