In this important book, the authors use a widely accepted index to compare the stressfulness of life in different states, present new data on various kinds of violence, and make a compelling case that stress leads to widespread and often lethal aggression. They also examine how the norms of the various subcultural groups within states relate to drinking, the use of violence for socially legitimate purposes, the status of women, and readership of pornography, in an effort to explain geographic differences in the manifestations of violence. "A fascinating attempt to understand the relationship between the social environment, stress, and violent and maladaptive behaviors. The innovative use of large-scale national statistics to examine social behaviors is timely, interesting, and provocative."-Paul Root Wolpe, University of Pennsylvania