Wednesday, April 18, 2018

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived - Adam Rutherford

This is a smart, smart book - maybe even too smart for me.  Adam Rutherford explores and tries to explain how genetics explain us now, and the history of all of us. How we are all related to Kings and Queens and our family trees are intertwined and we are essentially all cousins.

As well as a lot of scientific explanations, which essentially went over my head a bit, he did clear up some things.  Talking about race and how inaccurate a description that is nowadays with a lot more of  diversity and intermarriage over the years in most countries.  That most people with European heritage will have Viking blood, that some things that were taught to us in school like having blue eyed kids may not be as simple as once thought, that lots of genetic material may predict eye colour.  Ancestry tests which seem to be all the rage at the moment may not be quite as clear cut as they like to advertise.

An interesting read - for me maybe I would understand it more with some diagrams on a tv show, as it was  a lot to take in in written form. 4/5

2 comments:

sallyhicks said...

I think I might enjoy this. My husband is 1/4 danish with beautiful blue eyes. I. Am 3/4 Irish ☘️. I am about to send off a kit to see what my genes will show. Interesting.

John Bellen said...

I do like reading about nationality and ethnicity, but mainly from an historical perspective. This sounds like a good read.