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Title: Outdated and overly technical
Review: This book used to be a great reference when it was first published back in 1996. A lot of water has flown under the bridges since in the field of genetics, the fastest evolving science in the early 21st century. I have read my fair share of books about genetics, and try to keep up-to-date with the scientific literature with regards to population genetics in particular. This is probably why reading this book came as such a disappointment to me. It already seems so antiquated. The fact that the writing style is so dense and repetitive does not help either. The strong point are the maps and statistic tables, but even they are of little value if you have seen more recent data, notably Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA studies. My recommendation would be to purchase a newer book on the subject. If you are looking for a good popular science book on population genetics, go for The 10,000 Year Explosion, by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending.
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