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

by Adam Rutherford, Siddhartha Mukherjee (Foreword by)

Overview

National Book Critics Circle Award—2017 Nonfiction Finalist

“Nothing less than a tour de force—a heady amalgam of science, history, a little bit of anthropology and plenty of nuanced, captivating storytelling.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

A National Geographic Best Book of 2017

In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species—births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away—until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has blown the lid off what we thought we knew. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story—from 100,000 years ago to the present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615194940
Publisher:	The Experiment, LLC
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	88,651
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Adam Rutherford is a science writer and broadcaster. He studied genetics at University College London, and during his PhD on the developing eye, he was part of a team that identified the first genetic cause of a form of childhood blindness. He has written and presented many award-winning series and programs for the BBC, including the flagship weekly Radio 4 program Inside Science, The Cell for BBC Four, and Playing God (on the rise of synthetic biology) for the leading science series Horizon, as well as writing for the science pages of the Guardian. His first book, Creation, on the origin of life and synthetic biology, was published in 2013 to outstanding reviews and was short-listed for the Wellcome Trust Prize.

Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Emperor of All Maladies. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher.

Table of Contents

Foreword Siddhartha Mukherjee x

Author's note xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1 How We Came to Be

1 Horny and mobile 14

2 The first European union 65

3 These American lands 128

4 When we were kings 157

Part 2 Who We Are Now

5 The end of race 214

6 The most wondrous map ever produced by humankind 265

7 Fate 311

8 A short introduction to the future of humankind 339

Epilogue 361

Acknowledgments 364

Glossary 366

References and further reading 370

Text and image credits 383

Interview with the author 384

Index 387

About the author 402

Editorial Reviews

"Provides a good survey of the science of genomics and how it’s changing the story of human evolution."

Forbes

"Adam Rutherford’s A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived is the book we need."

PZ Myers

"Rutherford unpeels the science with elegance."

Nature

"Adam Rutherford’s book is well-written, stimulating, and entertaining. What’s more important, he consistently gets it right."

Richard Dawkins

"A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived is equal parts informative, engaging, and frequently surprising—a must-read for fans of big-picture popular science."

Jennifer Ouellette

"[Rutherford’s] head-on, humane approach to such charged and misunderstood topics as intelligence and race make this an indispensable contribution to the popular science genre."

Apple’s iBooks Best Book of September 2017

"One of my big obsessions as a reporter is our expanding understanding of our genetic history, thanks to incredible advances like sequencing Neanderthal genomes. Rutherford, a British geneticist and journalist, presents a great survey of this fast-moving field."

Carl Zimmer

"Rutherford manages to reveal fresh (and controversial) assessments of human history and dispel long-held beliefs with clarity, enthusiasm and humor."

Shelf Awareness

"A shining example of science writing at its best . . . will change the way you think about human evolution."

Newsday

"Genetics is opening up the past as never before—Adam Rutherford puts the genes in genealogy brilliantly."

Matt Ridley

"An effervescent work, brimming with tales and confounding ideas carried in the ‘epic poem in our cells.’"

Guardian

"A National Bestseller
A National Geographic Best Book of 2017
An Amazon Best Book of 2017
2017 Foreword INDIES Gold Winner
Winner of the 2018 Thomas Bonner Book Prize
A New York Public Library Book of the Day

"A family portrait for all humanity . . . This enjoyable book has a great deal to say about our genetic code—or, more precisely, about how our knowledge of genetics is misused and misconstrued. . . . [Rutherford] proves an enthusiastic guide and a good storyteller."

The Wall Street Journal

"A sweeping new view of the human evolution story, using the latest science of DNA as the central guide . . . . Recommended."

Scientific American

"Rutherford unpeels the science with elegance."

Nature Lib

A National Bestseller
A National Geographic Best Book of 2017
An Amazon Best Book of 2017
2017 Foreword INDIES Gold Winner
Winner of the 2018 Thomas Bonner Book Prize
A New York Public Library Book of the Day

“A family portrait for all humanity . . . This enjoyable book has a great deal to say about our genetic code—or, more precisely, about how our knowledge of genetics is misused and misconstrued. . . . [Rutherford] proves an enthusiastic guide and a good storyteller.”—The Wall Street Journal

“An effervescent work, brimming with tales and confounding ideas carried in the ‘epic poem in our cells.’ ”—Guardian

“Rutherford raises significant questions and explains complex topics well, engaging readers with humor and smooth prose.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A sweeping new view of the human evolution story, using the latest science of DNA as the central guide . . . . Recommended.”—Scientific American

“Rutherford unpeels the science with elegance.”—Nature

“A shining example of science writing at its best . . . will change the way you think about human evolution.”—Newsday

“Adam Rutherford’s book is well-written, stimulating, and entertaining. What’s more important, he consistently gets it right.”—Richard Dawkins

“One of my big obsessions as a reporter is our expanding understanding of our genetic history, thanks to incredible advances like sequencing Neanderthal genomes. Rutherford, a British geneticist and journalist, presents a great survey of this fast-moving field.”—Carl Zimmer

“Genetics is opening up the past as never before—Adam Rutherford puts the genes in genealogy brilliantly.”—Matt Ridley

“Adam Rutherford’s A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived is the book we need.”—PZ Myers

“[Rutherford’s] head-on, humane approach to such charged and misunderstood topics as intelligence and race make this an indispensable contribution to the popular science genre.”—Apple’s iBooks Best Book of September 2017

“Provides a good survey of the science of genomics and how it's changing the story of human evolution.”—Forbes

“An enthusiastic history of mankind in which DNA plays a far greater role than the traditional ‘bones and stones’ approach, followed by a hopeful if cautionary account of what the recent revolution in genomics foretells . . . Often quirky but thoughtful—solid popular science.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived is equal parts informative, engaging, and frequently surprising—a must-read for fans of big-picture popular science.”
—Jennifer Ouellette, author of Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self

“Rutherford manages to reveal fresh (and controversial) assessments of human history and dispel long-held beliefs with clarity, enthusiasm and humor.”—Shelf Awareness

“A rollercoaster tour of human history and evolution . . . Rutherford is a bold, confident storyteller.”—Genome

“Magisterial, informative, and delightful.”—Peter Frankopan

“Rutherford is a gifted storyteller; he interweaves layperson’s genetics with the personal histories of scientists, explorers, and historical figures to create an extraordinarily readable book.”—Choice

From the Publisher

…impressive…This is not a textbook (although it should be)…As popular science writing, A Brief History is nothing less than a tour de force—a heady amalgam of science, history, a little bit of anthropology and plenty of nuanced, captivating storytelling. While Rutherford…makes both his ambition and cheekiness clear in the title, he somehow manages to deliver on its great promise…but he does so in such an entertaining and engaging fashion that the book never feels pedantic…Ever the scientist, Rutherford never sacrifices data on the altar of a good story: A Brief History is full of qualifiers, complications and "we just don't know" that will no doubt disappoint white supremacists and genetic determinists of all stripes.

The New York Times Book Review - Misha Angrist

★ 08/21/2017
British geneticist Rutherford (Creation) looks closely at the new field of genomics, scrutinizing the voluminous data being generated by researchers and what it says about us and our ancestors. Methodologically, he seeks to introduce genomics into older fields, “namely history, archaeology, paleoanthropology, medicine, and psychology.” For example, close study of the genetic composition of living and dead individuals demonstrates that, though the Vikings controlled much of England for 200 years, they rarely reproduced with the people they subjugated. Similar analysis, Rutherford claims, leads scholars to believe that a single population coming across the Bering Strait 24,000 years ago should be seen as the ancestors of all indigenous people in North and South America. Rutherford also explains why race isn’t a valid concept scientifically: “I am unaware of any group of people on Earth that can be defined by their DNA in a scientifically satisfactory way.” He argues persuasively that much of what is known about genetics is critical at the population level but much less so at the individual level, asserting that our ignorance has led to a “swing from genetic determinism to genetic denialism.” Rutherford raises significant questions and explains complex topics well, engaging readers with humor and smooth prose. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2017
Human genome studies indicate the history of our species is a tangled one. Our ancestors not only inbred frequently but also interbred with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and perhaps other early hominids yet unidentified. As Rutherford (Creation) notes, for Homo sapiens, "there was no beginning, and there are no missing links." In addition, while early genetic researchers interpreted human variation through a Eurocentric and often racist lens, contemporary molecular genetics reveals "we all are a bit of everything, and we come from all over." The author, however, has a clear inclination toward European, particularly British, incidents and examples. At times, Rutherford succumbs to editorializing on peripheral topics, including creationism, epigenetics, and genetic determinism, but he continues to be a witty writer throughout, effectively using typography to illustrate and explain genetic concepts. Included is a brief glossary of genetic terms. VERDICT By turns amusing and provocative, this book, which may bruise the egos of a few genealogists, will appeal to both popular and technical science readers.—Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono

Library Journal

2017-08-07
An enthusiastic history of mankind in which DNA plays a far greater role than the traditional "bones and stones" approach, followed by a hopeful if cautionary account of what the recent revolution in genomics foretells.According to British geneticist and science writer Rutherford (Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself, 2013), "we have literally thousands of ancient, hardened bones, found all around the world; many in the nursery of the human story in eastern Africa, many in Europe, and the more we look the more we find." They reveal clues about how our ancestors looked, hints about their behavior, and vague, contradictory hypotheses about their relation to our species. Deciphering DNA from these relics turns up more specific information about "how our evolution has proceeded." Neanderthals were close relatives. They separated from a common ancestor around 500,000 years ago and met and interbred with us throughout Eurasia, dying out 30,000 years ago and leaving a small percentage of their DNA in ours. Amazingly, DNA from a single finger bone uncovered another subspecies, the Denisovans, which wandered Asia at the same time, leaving a sprinkling of DNA in Pacific Islanders and Australian Aborigines. Turning to the present, Rutherford recounts this century's spectacular discoveries in genomics, pausing regularly to grind axes. For readers who wonder if racism has any basis in genetics, he explains at length that it hasn't. He examines companies that offer to analyze an individual's DNA and reveals why many of their claims are nonsense. Casting doubt on the steady stream of media announcements that scientists have discovered the gene for…addiction, homosexuality, height, anxiety, obesity, etc…the author emphasizes that dramatic advances in human well-being through genomics are guaranteed, if not quite yet. "Life is the accumulation and refinement of information embedded in DNA," writes Rutherford. "We are the data." Often quirky but thoughtful—solid popular science.

Kirkus Reviews