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.

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.

It’s a good mix of biology and social evolution

I read “The Seven Daughters of Eve” which centered around Mitrochondrial DNA. By Bryan Skyes a few years ago. It was informative yet appeared to be enamored with Europe being the beginning of Mankind. It was explicit about it, yet it’s how I read it.

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived while more involved in description of gene mutation or alteration which may not be easy to follow, has a good balance between evolution and impact on social behavior possibly rooting from misunderstandings or sheer lack ok knowledge. I highly recommend it to parents so they can raise informed children.

Bravo!

Technical, yet easy to understand. I particularly enjoyed the frequent, subtle and not so subtle humor. Will definitely listen to this again. Bravo!

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