Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I The Deep History of Our Species
1 How the Genome Explains Who We Are
2 Encounters with Neanderthals
3 Ancient DNA Opens the Floodgates
Part II How We Got to Where We Are Today
4 Humanity’s Ghosts
5 The Making of Modern Europe
6 The Collision That Formed India
7 In Search of Native American Ancestors
8 The Genomic Origins of East Asians
9 Rejoining Africa to the Human Story
Part III The Disruptive Genome
10 The Genomics of Inequality
11 The Genomics of Race and Identity
12 The Future of Ancient DNA
Notes on the Illustrations
Notes
Index
DAVID REICH, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is one of the world’s leading pioneers in analyzing ancient human DNA. In a 2015 article in Nature, he was named one of ten people who matter in all of the sciences for his contribution to transforming ancient DNA data "from niche pursuit to industrial process." Awards he has received include the Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Dan David Prize in the Archaeological and Natural Sciences for his computational discovery of intermixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
“Few subjects fascinate us as much as human origins. . . . If you
want to understand our origins over the course of the last 100,000
years, this book will be the best up-to-date account for you.”
—Jared Diamond, The New York Times Book Review
"The work in [Reich's] lab has reshaped our understanding of human
prehistory. . . . He and his colleagues have shed light on the
peopling of the planet and the spread of agriculture, among other
momentous events."
—Carl Zimmer, The New York Times
"Reich documents an extraordinary moment in the history of science.
. . . A potential political bombshell."
—The Wall Street Journal
"In Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New
Science of the Human Past, David Reich . . . introduces us to
the 21st-century Rosetta Stone: ancient DNA, which will do
more for our understanding of prehistory than radiocarbon
dating did. . . . Who We Are and How We Got Here is less
than 300 pages of text, but it is packed with startling facts
and novel revelations that overturn the conventional expectations
of both science and common sense.”
—The National Review
“An excerpt from David Reich's new book, Who We Are and How We Got
Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past,
recently touched off a media and cultural firestorm in the United
States. Appearing as an op-ed in The New York Times,
‘How Genetics is Changing Our Understanding of “Race”’, it had
Reich stating that he is ‘worried that well-meaning people who deny
the possibility of substantial biological differences among
human populations are digging themselves into an indefensible
position, one that will not survive the onslaught of
science.’ This was not unlike tossing a grenade into the
public square. But perched at Harvard, as one of his
generation's most eminent human population geneticists, Reich will
move forward unscathed. The reason is simple: Who We
Are . . . is mostly not a controversial book, but a wondrous
one. It sheds light on the nascent field of ancient
DNA, paleogenetics, which is exposing the human past by
tracing population histories. Give a paleogeneticist a single
genome, and they will unfurl the history of whole
peoples.”
—India Today
"Ancient DNA is rewriting human (and Neanderthal) history. The
genomes of the long dead are turning up all sorts of unexpected and
controversial findings. Who We Are and How We Got Here, charts
the myriad ways the study of ancient DNA is lobbing bombs into the
halls of established wisdom."
—The Atlantic
"A thrilling account of mapping humans through time and place.
. . . Genomics and statistics have drawn back the curtain on the
sort of sex and power struggles you’d expect in Game of
Thrones. . . . We do need a non-loaded way to talk about genetic
diversity and similarities in populations. This book goes some way
to starting that conversation."
—Nature
“In this comprehensive and provocative book, David Reich exhumes
and examines fundamental questions about our origin and future
using powerful evidence from human genetics. What does ‘race’ mean
in 2018? How alike and how unlike are we? What does identity
mean? Reich’s book is sobering and clear-eyed, and, in equal parts,
thrilling and thought provoking. There were times that I had
to stand up and clear my thoughts to continue reading this
astonishing and important book.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The
Emperor of All Maladies
“Reich’s book reads like notes from the frontline of the
'Ancient DNA Revolution' with all the spellbinding drama and
intrigue that come with such a huge transformation in our
understanding of human history."
—Anne Wojcicki, CEO and Co-Founder of 23andMe
“In just five years, the study of ancient DNA has transformed our
understanding of world prehistory. The geneticist David Reich, one
of the pioneers in this field, here gives the brilliantly lucid
first account of the resulting new view of human origins and of the
later dispersals that went on to shape the modern world.”
—Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archeology Emeritus, University
of Cambridge
“Reich’s magisterial book gives a riveting account of human
prehistory and history through the new lens provided by ancient DNA
data. The story of human populations, as he shows, is ever one of
widespread and repeated mixing, debunking the fiction of ‘pure’
populations.”
—Molly Przeworski, Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia
University
“This breathtaking book dramatically revises our understanding of
the deep history of our species in our African homeland and beyond.
Beautifully written, it reads like a detective novel and
demonstrates a hard truth that often makes many of us
uncomfortable: not only are all human beings mixed, but our
intuitive understanding of the evolution of the population
structure of the world around us is not to be trusted.”
—Henry Louis Gates Jr., University Professor, Harvard University,
and Executive Producer of Finding Your Roots
“This absorbing book will blow you away with its rich and
astounding account of where we came from and why that matters.
Reich tells the surprising story of how humans got to every corner
of the planet, which was revealed only after he and other
scientists unlocked the secrets of ancient DNA. The courageous,
compassionate, and highly personal climax will transform how you
think about the meaning of ancestry and race.”
—Daniel E. Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology,
Harvard University, and author of The Story of the Human Body:
Evolution, Health, and Disease
“Powerful writing and extraordinary insights animate this endlessly
fascinating account, by a world scientific leader, of who we modern
humans are and how our ancestors arrived in the diverse corners of
the world. I could not put the book down.”
—Robert Weinberg, Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
"David Reich uses the power of modern genome analysis to show the
fascinating complexity of human migration and history. By letting
the data lead him, he treads a narrow path between racists and
xenophobes on one side and left-wing ideologues on the other.
Although many of his conclusions will be controversial, he starts a
necessary conversation about what modern genome analysis can tell
us about the variability of human populations."
—Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate and President of the Royal
Society, London
[Praise from the UK]:
"Remarkable. . . . Spectacular. . . . In making constant new
discoveries about humanity, Reich and his Harvard team are now
plunging into uncharted academic waters. . . . Reich’s influence in
this field has been immense and the output of his department
monumental. . . . Thrilling in its clarity and its
scope."
—The Guardian
"David Reich of Harvard Medical School is one of the leading lights
in the field of ancient DNA. His team's work has cast a new
perspective on human history, reconstructing the epic migrations
and genetic exchanges that shaped the people of different regions
worldwide."
—BBC
"This is a compendious book . . . its importance cannot be
overstated and neither can some of its best stories."
—Sunday Times
"Who We Are and How We Got Here provides a marvellous
synthesis of the field."
—Financial Times
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