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maestro_cerrotorcido's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
2.5
I enjoyed and learned a lot from this book, but I do have some problem with some of the verbiage, some of the unsupported statements, and some questions I had that never really were answered. The author did a great job of deliberating condeming the xenophobia that has tried to justify itself by using genetics, but at the same time threw around relative and discrimnatory terms such as calling some societies advanced and civilized. I didn't appreciate how the author erased Palestine, only referring to Israel. And then he made a statement about how Jews are descendants of Caananites and Palestines of the Philistines. I could have misunderstood that (it was such a brief and unelaborated statement), but if that is what the author was claiming, that is objectively not true. All the genetic evidence shows the Palestinians are descendants of the Caananites and the other inhabitants of the area through the millenia. Palestinians are Israelites who converted to Islam, Christianity, and some continued practicing Judaism. The author also makes wildly presumptuous statements that may seem totally logical and uncontroversial but are actually irresponsible or at least juvenile when you are writing about a scientific topic and trying to educate people. Claims such as Europeans are living the most comfortable lives that have ever been lived in human history is a huge generalization that is not necessarily true. By what metric? Are you going to tell the impoverished that? What about the people being murdered by cops? It is such an ignorant thing to say.
seanrmac's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A quick, refined historical snapshot of humans throughout Europe. Now I’m interested in African history and reading up on that.