bwaber reviewed Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich
A Great Book with an Exceptionally Flawed Third Act
4 stars
In the first two thirds of this book, David Reich delivers an incredible view of the development and geographic dispersal of various human and human-ancestor populations. He clearly demonstrates how dramatically different groups of people moved over time, centering mixing as inherent to the human condition. Along the way he explains the modern genetic and statistical techniques that have allowed us to sequence DNA from skeletons that are tens of thousands of years old, including emulating techniques from computing chip production to ensure a clean sequencing environment!
You should probably stop after part 2 of this book, because unfortunately Reich takes the predictable heel turn all too common in books like this - advocating for eugenics. His argument belies a total lack of understanding of the non-genetic determinants of outcomes (discrimination anyone?). Rather than reading part 3, you'd be much better off reading the essential "The Social Life of DNA" …
In the first two thirds of this book, David Reich delivers an incredible view of the development and geographic dispersal of various human and human-ancestor populations. He clearly demonstrates how dramatically different groups of people moved over time, centering mixing as inherent to the human condition. Along the way he explains the modern genetic and statistical techniques that have allowed us to sequence DNA from skeletons that are tens of thousands of years old, including emulating techniques from computing chip production to ensure a clean sequencing environment!
You should probably stop after part 2 of this book, because unfortunately Reich takes the predictable heel turn all too common in books like this - advocating for eugenics. His argument belies a total lack of understanding of the non-genetic determinants of outcomes (discrimination anyone?). Rather than reading part 3, you'd be much better off reading the essential "The Social Life of DNA" by Alondra Nelson. With that in mind, I highly recommend the first two parts.