Books like Who we are and how we got here by David Reich

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks follows the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells were taken in 1951 without her consent and later became the first immortal human cell line, HeLa, driving major scientific breakthroughs while raising questions of ethics, race, and medical exploitation.

The Gene explores the science and history of genetics from ancient philosophers to modern genome mapping, blending scientific discovery with personal and ethical reflections on how our DNA shapes health and identity.

Mapping Human History is a comprehensive guide to the evolution of humans. The book is carefully chaptered into specific sections which focus on explaining both the geographical causes of human evolution (for example, isolation); the nature of which human characteristics are transferred to future generations by genetic processes; and the effects this has had on the distribution of humans across the planet. Olson accumulates a rich wealth of evidence such that the book covers a wide epoch of time and is valuable reading for many different cultures and ethnicities. It succeeds also in terms of providing complex and perhaps hitherto unknown ideas for readers about ideas such as 'mitochondrial Eve' and the Kalahari bushmen, whilst being easily accessible for anyone with just a framework knowledge of the barebones of evolution or genetics. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

When the head of the Human Genome Project and a former President of the United States both assure us that we are all, regardless of race, genetically 99.9% the same, the clear implication is that racial differences among us are superficial. The concept of race, many would argue, is an inadequate map of the physical reality of human variation. In short, human races are not biologically valid categories, and the very ideas of race and racial difference are morally suspect in that they support racism. In Race , Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele argue strongly against received academic wisdom, contending that human racial differences are both real and significant. Relying on the latest findings in nuclear, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosome DNA research, Sarich and Miele demonstrate that the recent origin of racial differences among modern humans provides powerful evidence of the significance, not the triviality, of those differences. They place the "99.9% the same" figure in context by showing that racial differences in humans exceed the differences that separate subspecies or even species in such other primates as gorillas and chimpanzees. The authors conclude with the paradox that, while, scientific honesty requires forthright recognition of racial differences, public policy should not recognize racial-group membership.

Where did modern humans come from and how important are the biological differences among us? Are we descended from Neanderthals? How many races of people are there? Were Native Americans the first settlers of the New World? How can we tell if Thomas Jefferson had a child with Sally Hemings? Through an engaging examination of issues such as these, and using non-technical language, Reflections of Our Past shows how anthropologists use genetic information to test theories and define possible answers to fundamental questions in human history. By looking at genetic variation in the world today, we can reconstruct the recent and remote events and processes that created the variation we see, providing a fascinating reflection of our genetic past. Reflections of Our Past is a W. W. Howells Book Prize Winner and Choice Outstanding Academic Title.