A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

By: Adam Rutherford

Narrated by: Adam Rutherford

A National Geographic Best Book of the Year

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 completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 Adam Rutherford (P)2018 Tantor

Thought provoking and interesting

I enjoyed this listen. The topic is of great interest to me and was easy to understand so anyone would enjoy it. It always interests me to think about who I am and how I came to be. When I stop and think about my past generations and how I am the total sum of those generations, I find it profounding. This audiobook goes into some of how I became me.

Excellent

Excellent book. Don’t get lost in the genetics foray when the book is 65-70% complete, it’s worth pushing through to the end

I work in gene therapy and I liked it.

I thought this was a wonderful layman's presentation of evolution, genetics, and how this applies to us. The analogies were appropriate and weren't a stretch in my opponion. Adam Rutherford is a good narrator with enough inflection to keep the read interesting without feeling forced. Though I'm in the field, the field is very broad and when you are I the biological weeds you don't necessarily apply other philosophies. His rather broad coverage taught me historical and statisticals aspects I didn't know and made me think about humans in ways I had not before.

readable, helpful, imperfect, still worth it

Other readers have noted that Rutherford strays out of his expertise into theology in an unhelpful way. This happens for sure, but it is not even slightly a major thread of the book. If, like me, you have both strongly held religious beliefs and profound religious questions, and a modicum of social skills, this feature will not bother you. No book is perfect. No echo chamber should be untested.

Another reviewer recommended this book for high school students. I agree, but allow me to provide some reasons:

- The book covers biology, genetics, statistics, history, sociology, anthropology and so on. To understand how they interact would be a good paper for a high school senior to tackle.

- The book contains unsupported opinion and supported opinions. To develop a skill for detecting the difference would be useful as a life skill.

- The book shows of the author's argument's strengths and exposes some weaknesses. Identifying and discussing them can build community and teach the value of earnest and honest pursuit of truth even with obvious imperfections.

- The author makes use of multiple styles of writing: Didactic, humorous, idiom, quotation, illustration, and so on. For students to be able to understand and eventually use all of those forms will make them better readers and better citizens.

This imperfect book teaches a lot, and provides a foil for so many more conversations.

Paul

Good read!

I really enjoyed this book. It got me thinking about a lot of things and I learned quite a few things as well! It is clear the author is very passionate.

Pronunciation is key

While the content of the book was interesting, and I learned from it's content, the narrator should have taken the few minutes necessary to learn how to pronounce Indigenous names. It was incredibly disappointing to continually hear Indigenous names completely mispronounced when there are easily available pronunciation guides and many names are not difficult, especially given how easily the narrator pronounced scientific names with no issue.

A Top-Notch Work

This was a most excellent book. I am well versed in evolutionary science, yet have always been a bit scared of genetics. This was perfect. I enjoyed it immensely. The author actually made an excellent presenter: Rutherford could make a second career as a book reader for Audible! Smooth voice, nice British accent, perfect timing and delivery. But content is, of course, the real crux of the matter and, in that, Rutherford’s work excelled. I found this book to be highly accessible, engaging, and informative all the way, but also entertaining, and not overly academic or technical. I recommend this book unequivocally to anyone interested in genetic science, which we should all be in this day and age. Fascinating, not dry. I am not generally so easy to please. Rarely pen a review. But this one was perfect.

A Fun Romp Through History and Genetics

This book is a fun mix of history and science as the origins of humanity are explored through the lense of genetics.

Sit back and listen to the sweep of human history

Rutherford does a great job of summing up the pieces of human biological history. He weaves together lots of facts and observations that add to a detailed picture of the sweep and pageantry.

makes me want to take the plunge

this bòok is a great listen... this teacher pushes you to want to know more about human biology.