Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes

Very informative and easy to read. Should be required in all high schools for race relations.

This is an excellent book, which I would highly recommend using in parts (or the whole) for introductory level college classes. What is so helpful about it is the way that it brings together the last 50 years of research in paleoanthropology, paleobiology, genetics, and related fields to explain the convergence towards a very wide-spread consensus about the primordial history of our species. The book puts in clear context the snippets that many people have read about 'mitochondrial Eve' and 'Y-chromosome Adam.' Few laypeople realize that there is now such a strong consensus in the scientific community that all contemporary human beings are descended from the same small group of primordial human beings in central East Africa some 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. But this finding, and the related explanations of superficial differences between the "races," is of enormous cultural and political importance. It is as important in anthropology as the discovery of the big bang was in cosmology. It ought to be taught in all our schools. Moreover, while the detailed examples added in the various chapters may be considered 'padding' by some scientific readers, they are very helpful in bringing the ideas alive for non-expert readers. The text is highly accessible and quite gripping -- perfectly usable for college or even high school audiences.

Steve Olson's Mapping Human History is an excellent introduction to historical genetics, and indeed it has been called by the New Scientist as "the most balanced, accessible and up-to-date survey of the field currently available." It is written by a renowned science journalist, not a scientist, who quotes and discusses the leaders in the field in a quite readable and entertaining fashion. The book has apparently offended some people by discounting ancestry (and racist offshoots) in light of the overwhelming evidence against the concept. However its scientific credentials are impeccable.

This book will appeal to the same audience that enjoyed Bryan Sykes' "Seven Daughters of Eve," which was largely about mitochondrial DNA patterns found in Europe. "Mapping Human History" is broader in scope, including Y chromosome patterns and many populations around the world.The book is engaging reading cover-to-cover, explaining the implications of modern genetic concepts such as haplotypes (specific DNA patterns inherited from one parent) and haplogroups (clusters of similar haplotypes which originated in different parts of the world).I also find myself using "Mapping Human History" as a reference for members of the GENEALOGY-DNA mailing list at RootsWeb. The great migrations of the past are not just an abstract concept to us. Genealogists now use Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA tests to analyze family trees covering the past few hundred years, but our DNA also carries an echo of our "deep ancestry" from thousands of years ago.

Steve Olson's engaging, convincing and entertaining book draws on the latest dramatic research in genetics to demonstrate that, while we squabbling human beings tend to focus on and, so often tragically, attack each other over the racial and ethnic differences among us, the real story of humanity is that we are--under the skin, in the blood--hardly different at all. Olson's book and Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel," which carries a similar message via the vehicle of anthropology, are wonderfully complementary.Olson, like all of our best science writers, uses an informal and conversational style to bring hard science to lay readers digestably. Get ready to learn about mitochondrial DNA, haplotypes and the impact of archaic humans.Olson's message will be a troubling one for those who draw comfort and, sometimes, murderous fury from human divisiveness. But this book adds to the growing body of significant science and scientific journalism that will lay arguments of inherent cultural superiority to rest among any who are able to approach this material with an open mind and a hate-free heart. This book should be required reading for every member of the human race.