Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, now gives us an indispensable book that dissects violence and offers new solutions to the age-old problem of why people kill. Lonnie Athens was raised by a brutally domineering father. Defying all odds, Athens became a groundbreaking criminologist who turned his scholar's eye to the problem of why people become violent. After a decade of interviewing several hundred violent convicts - men and women of varied backgrounds and ethnicity, he discovered "violentization," the four-stage process by which almost any human being can evolve into someone who will assault rape, or murder another human being. Why They Kill is a riveting biography of Athens and a judicious critique of his seminal work, as well as an unflinching investigation into the history of violence.