Who We Are and How We Got Here

Geneticist David Reich describes how the analysis of whole ancient genomes has changed the study of the human past, drawing on work by his Harvard Medical School laboratory and other groups. A central finding is that almost all human populations are mixtures formed by repeated migrations and gene flow. The book has three parts: the background of the ancient DNA revolution and the interbreeding of archaic and modern humans, the makeup of major present-day populations, and what the new methods imply. Reich also writes about inequality among populations, between the sexes and among individuals. Oxford University Press published it in 2018, and many scientists and scholars took issue with how it treats race, though some reviewers defended it.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb praised it as a monument rather than just a book and the start of a new cultural program. Marc Andreessen paired it with a book on culture as two reads on how humans came to be, this one covering genetics.