A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

It is refreshing to read a science book written as a science book. That is where A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived excels. Adam Rutherford writes conclusions that can be reached, speculates on theories unknown and unknowable, and debunks spam science of pseudo-geneticists. It’s done very kindly, thoroughly, and with wry humor. He begins with the history of homo-sapiens, where we came from and who we ran into along the way, as evidenced by our DNA. It is not a simple linear evolution as evidenced by the hodgepodge of European genotypes, by the clear and cloudy ancestry of the American Indian, and by the notion that everyone of European decent, in any degree, has descended from kings. He speaks authoritatively of the history and idiocy of “race” as applied to homo-sapiens, a term which is meaningless in the context of our DNA. He writes of the hope and wonder of the Human Genome Project and, finally, where we are headed as a species, with our past as a guide. The book is wonderfully easy to read; it’s authoritative, extensively foot-noted, and includes a glossary of genetic terms. The author accomplishes scientific explanation without boredom and with common sense, using real-world examples without being patronizing. The book is understandable, entertaining, and enlightening. I have no higher praise and recommend it.