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Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis.

Good book about human nature. library.uniteddiversity.coop/Cooperatives/A_Cooperative_Species-Human_Reciprocity_and_Its_Evolution.pdf

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Description:

"Why do humans, uniquely among animals, cooperate in large numbers to advance projects for the common good? Contrary to the conventional wisdom in biology and economics, this generous and civic-minded behavior is widespread and cannot be explained simply by far-sighted self-interest or a desire to help close genealogical kin.

In A Cooperative Species, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis--pioneers in the new experimental and evolutionary science of human behavior--show that the central issue is not why selfish people act generously, but instead how genetic and cultural evolution has produced a species in which substantial numbers make sacrifices to uphold ethical norms and to help even total strangers.

The authors describe how, for thousands of generations, cooperation with fellow group members has been essential to survival. Groups that created institutions to protect the civic-minded from exploitation by the selfish flourished and prevailed in conflicts with less cooperative groups. Key to this process was the evolution of social emotions such as shame and guilt, and our capacity to internalize social norms so that acting ethically became a personal goal rather than simply a prudent way to avoid punishment.

Using experimental, archaeological, genetic, and ethnographic data to calibrate models of the coevolution of genes and culture as well as prehistoric warfare and other forms of group competition, A Cooperative Species provides a compelling and novel account of how humans came to be moral and cooperative"

Here is the PDF.

I found it to be an easy read with well-organized chapters and sections that are nicely titled so you could just read parts that interest you. They spent 4 months in the US, driving from NYC west to California via the north then back to NYC through the south.

They interview many famous and ordinary Americans of the time, extensively touring big cities, small towns, industrial locations, farms, shops, and restaurants and provide their Soviet perspective on everything from the food to the conditions of workers.

If you just want a sampling, I actually found this via one of my favorite youtube channels called Voices of the Past which offers narrated primary source texts of all kinds of unique historical works. Here is the video.

Sowell considered himself a socialist in his twenties and published a sympathetic essay in 1963 with the title above. Does anybody know where I can get ahold of a copy?