General introduction to the picture that genetic research gives about the origin and distribution of our human species. Very readable, but unfortunately now thoroughly outdated. The emphasis in this book is also almost entirely on the rejection of racial theories. See my discussion in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1037691305. ( )

Saggio interessantissimo sull'uso della genetica per tracciare le origini e gli spostamenti di Homo sapiens.
Ben scritto,si legge d'un fiato pur mantenendo una buona dose di "tecnicismi genetici".
L'autore ?¨ molto attento a sottolineare che gli studi in materia,anche se potrebbero essere usati da gruppi razzisti per i loro scopi,in realt?  evidenziano chiaramente come l'essere umano non ?¨ che una sola specie,pur con le diversit?  presenti. ( )

Explores the origins of humans from prehistory and examines human migration, populations. Uses recent genetic studies, history, and anthropology to explore human variations and similarities. Argues that genetic differences are greater among individuals than between groups or race and that humans are more alike than we think.

I appreciated both the science of this book and the broader message of human commonality. This groundbreaking research that has surfaced over the past several years underscores how little separates all of us in scientific terms. What a great message for all of us to understand in a world where artifical differences threaten our very existence. ( )

This book is an unfortunate example of what happens when political correctness collides with the real world of science. Olson has such a determinedly preachy style of writing about an important topic of science, race, that if cannot help but flat out insult and nauseate all but the most determined or naive readers.
His central thesis is that race is not a biological construct (whatever that means), that there is no biological reality (whatever that means) to it, and thinking the contrary is the root cause of genocidal wars and all sorts of evil things. And did you know we are 99% chimpanzees too? And besides, race is only skin deep, and under our skin we are all alike...

This is a book filled with the superficial propaganda of the multiculturalists, longing for peace through diversity, and thoroughly indoctrinated with the impotent ideology of the wishful dreamers. Race doesn't matter? Try telling that to the participants in a race war, or the parents of marriage age children, or Jews. If race doesn't matter, why does he think intermarriage is a good thing? If race is merely a "social construct" why are most of the new things about race being discovered in the laboratory, not by poll-takers and pundits?

The science of race is rapidly progressing, using all sorts of exciting new tools and methods, with cooperative efforts expanding all across the world, and is being driven by new ideas and objectives impossible to even conceive of testing only a few decades ago. This is an amazing scientific endeavor, with immense importance for the proper understanding of man. Little of the excitement of this endeavor is communicated in the book, only the sound of an ax-grinding. ( )