The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures is a fascinating book and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in family history, or history generally.

Filled with anecdotes to help explain and enhance the science behind DNA and how it makes us who we are, you’ll also learn about events both historical and contemporary, and how DNA has been used in good and bad ways. The stories associated with them are at turns shocking and emotional, insightful and compelling.

The Invisible History of the Human Race is a personal and global reminder that we don’t always know what might be in the past of people we meet, or what we’ll find when we look into our family history. An absorbing book.

The most remarkable thing about the use of DNA as a historical tool is that it illuminates not just the biological past but the social past as well.

Kenneally, Christine, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures , Black Inc., Sydney, 2014.

Listen to an interview about the book with author Christine Kenneally on the ABC’s Life Matters program and you’ll get a sense of what you’ll find in the book.