The author does a fine job of convincing us that moral zealotry and persecution, including torture and murder as well as mere reputation smearing, are typically the work of those with a sense of the pure and the impure. The chapter on the deterioration of tolerance in China is especially helpful here. Mao and his moral dogmas were the catalyst. Prior to that, a Confucian tolerance reigned. The chapter on the French Revolution shows convincingly that the purists can be revolutionary, as any walk across campus today can reveal. The author is not interested in the zealots on campus these days, but instead aims his big guns at political tyrannies such as Communism and Fascism.

Although I hope that Moore's assessment of monotheism is flawed, he demonstrates an accute understanding of how group conflict emerges. He carefully shows the importance of the ritualized, pure "self", in opposition to the heathen impure "other." Given the circumstances of the NYC and DC attacks, we must ask ourselves if Moore is right or not.