Mander uses the Cassowary, which takes its name from a bird that has lost the power of flight and has adapted to a life spent crashing through the undergrowth of the tropical forest, as a symbol of twentieth-century man's one-sided adaptation to the demands of industrial society. The book is a mosaic of observations and reflections, discussions and arguments, incidents and episodes, brief sketches and portraits which coalesce into the portrait of a large industrial combine. Mander, who holds a senior executive position with a large industrial concern, writes with the advantage of the inside knowledge of its workings. But he also gives the human aspect equal importance.