A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

by Adam Rutherford

book published in 2013 by the former science editor of The New York Times, Nicholas Wade, made a number of questionable assertions relating to the genetics of race. A Troublesome Inheritance posed some ideas that race is not only very clearly defined genetically, but that these distinctions in DNA account for not just the physical characteristics of certain populations, but also some of the social and cultural behaviors. The book frequently misrepresents much of the work that is used to defend his assertion that recent evolution within so-called races explains why certain people appear to be better or worse at certain things. According to Wade, the English display a “willingness to save and delay gratification” and this is absent from certain tribal cultures. Jewish genes are “adapted for success in capitalism.” The Chinese are predisposed to obey authority (how similar this sentiment is to that of Galton expressed in the letter to the Times in the nineteenth century). These statements are unsupportable in any form based on our knowledge of history, genetics, and cognitive ability. They are also clumsy and gross stereotypes and, in my opinion, straightforward racism.