A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

By: Adam Rutherford

Narrated by: Adam Rutherford

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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 good review of where we are in genetics

A good review of where we are in genetics for the layperson. It reads more like a current event piece for the different divisions of genetics and how they are connected and what they still have to offer, than a history book. Adam is a wonderful narrator; very easy on the ears and even out-loud funny at times. He's obviously a natural teacher.

Solid popular science

This book took me a little bit to get into but then I was hooked. I didn't want it to end. It's the conversational, narrative nonfiction, mix of science facts and historical antidotes that I really enjoy. Entertaining and informative

Astonishing breadth of information easy to understand

This book covered areas that I always wondered about, particularly genetics, but never understood completely enough. I like the fast pace and easy to understand narrator. Highly recommended!

Enthusiastic comprehensive view of us

The author's enthusiasm and research of the subject of genetics and its relevance is superb. It is interesting, nuanced with a myriad of thoughts and components.

My only concern/ annoyance was what he thinks is comedic. If the author does not understand something then he should not presume it is unimportant, wrong, unexplored, or unscientific. A few times he likened astrology (5000 years old) to an unscientific expression. I know several PhD in astrophysics who would shudder at what the author thought is the gamut of astrology.