"In this groundbreaking study, renowned historian Rudolph Binion develops a whole new understanding of human history. Exploring the collective dimension of human behavior in various historic contexts, he argues that people participate in purposeful group actions while pursuing only their own individual ends as far as they know. The basic moving force in history thus emerges as neither individual motives nor abstract tendencies, such as modernization or globalization, but as group process operating in concealment."--Jacket.