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  • A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

  • The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
  • Written by: Adam Rutherford
  • Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
  • Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (178 ratings)

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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

Written by: Adam Rutherford
Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
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Publisher's Summary

A National Geographic Best Book of the Year  

In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. 

But those stories have always been locked away - until now. 

Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2016 Adam Rutherford (P)2018 Tantor

What listeners say about A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

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Absolutely brilliant

A concise and easy to understand history of humanity in the genetic and historical sense!

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8 people found this helpful

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Very informative. I loved listening

The author took on quite a task with the book. He made the book clear and offered a lot of real-world examples I would recommend this book to any who is curious about our origins.

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4 people found this helpful

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Comprehensive, contemporary and high yield

Dr. Adam Rutherford provides a comprehensive and contemporary description of the origin of all humans through the study of human genetics. The information is high yield, making the book a must read for anyone interested in the most up to date information about human genetics and how they impact human health, disease, behaviour, and society. One of the best virtues of this book is that it corrects many old and contemporary beliefs about human genetics and their impacts.

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3 people found this helpful

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Engaging, Fascinating, Entertaining

I love popular science books. I have no science background, and this was perfect for me. It is well written, and narrated by the author (normally that would be dire, but here is an author that knows how to read his own work).

This is such an engaging read, and the author makes all the concepts totally understandable, you will be left with the impression that, albeit briefly, you totally understand the science of genetics. I enjoyed the human stories behind the science (Darwin's barnacle collection made me chuckle)

Nice to know that I am most probably descended from Royalty (but so are all of us with with European ancestors), and while racism is real, sigh, race as a genetic marker is arbitrary, And the chapter on inbreeding, wow that was so so fascinating. The PDF that accompanied the book was super useful then.

This is a Brit centric book. Googling his name I found out he does a popular BBC podcast, so will definitely be giving that a listen as well.

I thoroughly recommend this book.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

light science 'reading'

I learned many facts and too much of the author's opinions. Will look for books by other authors on the same subject.

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TOO MUCH FOR ME

When I continually groan when I want to listen to a book and it’s still this one, I know it’s time to put it away. The author is an excellent narrator and is clearly an incredibly bright man with an expertise in this field. However from the perspective of a layperson generalist in this area, it’s just too much. I simply cannot finish this book. Although it is interesting, it has become like a long boring historical paper I feel the need to just get through. I think a four or five hour book on this topic that is more succinct would be better for the average person. I just can’t take it anymore. Sorry.

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1 person found this helpful

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Awesome.

Very accessible information! The narration was great & the author was very likeable!
I plan to purchase more of his works 👍

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great book but heavy British accent

easy to follow yet simple enough to understand, talks about the difference genome questions and explained the darwinian approach quite well

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Great

Great introduction to genetics and the science that is behind our lives on this planet. Made the complicated clear with lots of Brit humour thrown in.

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Great book, lots of excellent information

Rutherford does an excellent job of narrating his book, and the writing is also excellent. He explains a complex subject very well and makes it very understandable. As soon as I finished this book, I went looking for more from the same author.

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  • melody sheldon
  • 2019-03-31

I wish this book was in American high schools.

This book along with "Guns, Germs and Steel", would be the death of American racism.

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40 people found this helpful

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  • Robert Blais
  • 2019-04-24

DETAILED BUT ENTERTAINING

This book contains far more technical data about DNA and genetics than the average person would need. However it was very enlightening for scientific, social and historical ramifications. At times the author became carried away with philosophical issues but he presented this in a very clever and sometimes comical way. I finished the book much better informed about the science of genetics then when I started this is always a good thing. Of particular note is that the author / narrator did an excellent job and added familiarity and humor that was much appreciated.

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38 people found this helpful

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  • Wanderlusting
  • 2018-10-17

too much politics and idealistic ranting

most of the chapters are excellent however towards the second half of the book he starts getting a bit political and goes on a few rants. he also contradicts himself a couple times against things you said in the first half of the book.. lots of potential I really enjoyed the genetic milk drinking tolerance chapter and sections on Ancient DNA.

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34 people found this helpful

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  • Rikard
  • 2022-05-17

Falls apart because of woke ideology

It was interesting until chapter 6, which is an apology to Native Americans for the scientific method. The writer ignores the fact that every single culture in human history has rejected science because it undermines their magical beliefs. This is true of Christians. It is true of Jews. It is true of Muslims. It is true of the vikings. It is true of the samurai. It is true of every single culture in human history. And yet the writer spends a chapter pretending that Native Americans belief in magic is more legitimate than other magical beliefs. He also laments about "racism" which is good and fine, except that he goes out of his way to pretend that white people are MORE racist than other cultures—something which his own genomic research belies. It's quite apparent that the author is either himself invested in the woke religion or is very scared to offend those who espouse the new religion. If you're interested in the human genome and what is has shown, I would recommend other books that are more objective and rely on science rather than the feelings of their subjects—Sapiens and a Short History of Nearly Everything both come to mind.

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28 people found this helpful

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  • Mark Gunn
  • 2019-02-22

Content drifted away from title, but worth a read

Author was an excellent narrator and did a fabulous job of explaining some of the more complex elements of genetics.

The content didn't exactly follow the scope promised in the title, with a lot of side trips into the author's opinions on commercial genetic services, scientific principles, Christianity, creationism, etc not much of which, helped advance the explanation of our genetic history and seemed more of a soapbox for the author to take a shot at things he didn't like, but despite this, I think it's worth a read.

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25 people found this helpful

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  • Maestro F
  • 2020-07-23

Brilliant- a must science read

Adam Rutherford has crafted a clear, comprehensible and thoughtful description of up to date genetics research, the scientific path taken to achieve this understanding (as well as to eventually improve it) and the implications of what we have learned on human society. Books like this are essential in combatting the ill effects of pseudoscience and it’s social/political abuse (just think of Nazi eugenics- and that’s just the start of it). What make this book the best, however, are the author’s gift with language and his excellent oratory skills. He is at once personable, knowledgeable and extremely witty without being condescending or off putting in any way. Highly recommended for all thoughtful, educated people (and the rest of us who aspire to be so).

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23 people found this helpful

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  • DNA Diva
  • 2019-03-01

Both entertaining and informative

Adam uses wonderful analogies and has a very engaging, humorous writing (and speaking) style. As a scientist, I appreciated the details and evidence that was presented.

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11 people found this helpful

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  • 77Tango
  • 2021-09-12

Really good, except for....

...the diatribe at the end of the book. The book is a must read in terms of providing context and rationale behind what we can draw from genetics, and what we can't. When the author crosses over into religion, however, he is clearly out of his depth and not a little reactionary. Fortunately, that is a small part of this otherwise measured and well written commentary.
Kudos to the author on his personal touches in letting the reader into his life, and for the great sense of humor and feeling of candor throughout.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • Elina
  • 2019-07-27

Good, interesting, could be shorter

The book is good but would have benefited from being less lengthy. Some repetitions over too many hours - 12+. Nevertheless, it offers interesting facts, ideas, and perspectives

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6 people found this helpful

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  • Maui Diver
  • 2019-07-05

A brilliant description of modern human genetics

There are numerous books on human genetics. This is one of the very best. Clearly written, the science well explained, examples and analogies bring the incredibly complex subject of genetics into understandable focus. The data is current and leaves an excited expectation for future developments.

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5 people found this helpful