It traces the role and prevalence of rage in Western history, starting with the Thumos described by Homer in the Iliad.

[1] Julia Encke of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described Sloterdijk as a "democratically thinking Nietzsche reader" due to his search for a rage free from ressentiment, stating that the book was "a first step" toward such a thing.

[2] Publishers Weekly called the book "a brilliant and conceptually rich analysis of the influence of rage on the development of Western culture".

The critic continued: "Though frequently hampered by excessive academic jargon and a theoretically questionable oscillation between the non-equivalent notions of Thymos and rage, the book offers a fascinating account of the historical dynamics of social development".

[3] The French translation of the book received the Prix européen de l'essai Charles Veillon in 2008.