To provide a meaningful framework for this wide-ranging discussion, Moss establishes two principles: (1) Human culture is always organized around one or more of three core values, individualism, competition, and cooperation. The evolutionary change of which he speaks will, he argues, eliminate the first two principles that prevail today and lead to a social world dominated by the third. (2) Cooperation is inherently a social, collective phenomenon and does not—indeed, by definition, cannot—apply to individual behavior.

The narrative is divided into three unequal sections, the longest of which—the middle section that begins in Chapter 2 with a discussion of Ron Westrum’s work on the World War II Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)—takes the reader through an exhaustive inventory of instances in which individualism, competition, and cooperative behavior have been attempted and the extent to which they have succeeded or failed: systems analysis, social evolution, a history of individualism, including commentary on Alexis de Tocqueville, Benjamin Franklin, and Walt Whitman. One cannot emphasize too strongly the hard work, dedication to research, and expertise that the author exhibits in this discussion.

The shortest section encompasses the “Preface” and the other front matter, including Chapter 1. It is here that we learn about the author’s research on the Type A behavior complex and his discovery that it is a result not of specific social or biological factors but of life itself in the highly individualistic and competitive culture in the United States. It is also in this section that the framework of the main section is presented.

The book’s third and final section contains the author’s speculation on what a truly cooperative society would look like and how we might get from here to there. This discussion is unabashedly utopian, with the author appropriately citing Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward as a model. Here, Moss combines his unquestioned expertise on the phenomenon of cooperation with creative flights of imagination that at times stretch the powers of credibility, but he does so with due honesty and humility. Chapter 17, titled “Goodbye to Our Old Civilization, And Not a Moment Too Soon,” begins with a forecast:
'Cooperation will start small and spread gradually throughout our society, probably taking many generations. Two to three hundred years for a complete transformation may be required. As the process unfolds, changes in the structure of society will be gradual but profound. . . . Since we humans have never produced a cooperative society like the one I have been describing, I have to make theoretical assumptions and there will be places where we just won’t know what it will be like until we get there.'(p. 261)

Included among these forecasts are high rates of productivity with minimum work effort, the disappearance of most forms of interpersonal conflict, the disappearance of both capitalism and socialism, and the elimination of professional competitive sports. Because he is careful to stress that this is what a cooperative society might look like and because he wisely places the dawning of this new age far into the future, these forecasts seem more credible than they otherwise might be. But perhaps the most important lesson to take away from Moss’s conclusion—and, indeed, from the entire essay is this:
'We now have the means to banish our malaise and its sources and to give ourselves peace. We have the answer; it is the culture of cooperation. . . . How do we get to this wonderful Utopia? It’s no longer a mystery, true cooperation is no longer a stranger; the path is clear.' (p. 29)