num_pages: 304
description: In a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writer Steve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrations of our ancestors throughout the world over the past 150,000 years. Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Mapping Human History is a groundbreaking synthesis of science and history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the latest genetic research, linguistic evidence, and archaeological findings, Olson reveals the surprising unity among modern humans and "demonstrates just how naive some of our ideas about our human ancestry have been" (Discover).Olson offers a genealogy of all humanity, explaining, for instance, why everyone can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius as forebears. Olson also provides startling new perspectives on the invention of agriculture, the peopling of the Americas, the origins of language, the history of the Jews, and more. An engaging and lucid account, Mapping Human History will forever change how we think about ourselves and our relations with others.
language: English
title: Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
titlecomplete: Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
genres: History, Popular Science, Race, Biology, Science, Genetics, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Evolution, Anthropology
ratings_count: 1036
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Nonfiction
publisher: Mariner Books