#5 in History
The Gene: An Intimate History
- 616
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 5 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
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Our view
“The Gene: An Intimate History” turns the science of heredity into a readable human story, from early ideas to the mapped genome. Mukherjee tells it chronologically through the scientists behind the discoveries, weaves in his own family’s history of mental illness, and keeps returning to ethics: genes set likelihoods, not destinies. Some readers find the narrative less cohesive than in “The Emperor of All Maladies” and miss a discussion of genetic modification in other organisms.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Gene: An Intimate History is a book written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist. It was published on 17 May 2016 by Scribner. The book chronicles the history of the gene and genetic research, all the way from Aristotle to Crick, Watson and Franklin and then the 21st century scientists who mapped the human genome. The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people's well-being and traits. It delves into the personal genetic history of Siddhartha Mukherjee's family, including mental illness. However, it is also a cautionary message toward not letting genetic predispositions define a person or their fate, a mentality that the author says led to the rise of eugenics in history.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.6 across 169 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 53% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 8.0. That is how 8.3 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 24 | 14% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 7 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 8.6 | 138 | 82% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
