Britain: A Genetic Journey by Alistair Moffat (PDF)

Description

Based on exciting new research involving the largest sampling of DNA ever made in Britain, Alistair Moffat, author of the bestselling The Scots: A Genetic Journey, shows how all of us who live on these islands are immigrants. The last ice age erased any trace of more ancient inhabitants, and the ancestors of everyone who now lives in Britain came here after the glaciers retreated and the land greened once more. In an epic narrative, sometimes moving, sometimes astonishing, always revealing, Moffat writes an entirely new history of Britain. Instead of the usual parade of the usual suspects – kings, queens, saints, warriors and the notorious – this is a people’s history, a narrative made from stories only DNA can tell which offers insights into who we are and where we come from.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐In the course of reading this book, I have changed my rating from three stars to five stars! I bought it hoping for a more or less scientific accounting of the genetic make-up of the British people. This book does not meet those hopes. Furthermore, it lacks references to data sources so that it is very difficult to check the accuracy of Mr. Moffat’s statements or to obtain further information on items of interest. Hence the three star rating. Notwithstanding these shortcomings, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the book and I have decided to rate it as it is, not as I originally wanted it to be. From that standpoint, it is a five star book.The British is the story of how the inhabitants of present day Britain arose from a succession of immigrations and invasions starting with foragers in the wake of the last glacial maximum, followed by farmers some six to ten thousand years later, probably in two waves, later by metal-workers, and then by a series of invasions by Roman forces, Anglo Saxons, Vikings, and Normans. Throughout these tumultuous changes, trade between Britain and mainland Europe also led to a more or less continuous but lower rate influx of genetic material into the island. Finally, Mr. Moffat concludes that the composition of the British people is still changing as immigrants from the Commonwealth and the European Union add fresh elements to those that had immigrated previously.Mr. Moffat derives his account from a detailed blend of archaeological, linguistic, historical, and genetic sources, which he spices with accounts of life and events from the times about which he is writing. There is considerable detail but the author weaves his story with great expertise. The writing is very lively and spirited, making the book hard to put down. Overall, I learned a lot that I did not previously know and also gained new and valuable perspectives on the history of the land of my birth.The British could so easily have been a rehash of Alistair Moffat’s earlier book The Scots: A Genetic Journey which he co-wrote with James Wilson. Greatly to his credit, it is not. The British contains new material, including new genetic data and even the passages involving common subject matter appear to have been re-written and often improved.So, although the full story of Britain’s genetic past is yet to be written and Alistair Moffat’s take on British history is unlikely to be the final one, The British is a highly readable and interesting account given today’s knowledge.

⭐I loved this book. If I had read it long after I had read his other book on Scottish Genetics I think this book would have been 5 stars. My problem, I read them back to back and a lot of the history etc. that was discussed in the Scottish book was in the English one, so I found it a little repetitive. Having said this, don’t not read this book, it is a fascinating read. What I like about Moffat is his clear concise way of explaining history. It is anything but dry. It is a page turner, I love history books that paint a picture instead of those dry facts from school days. Although this is a book on genetics it is also a history of the British Isles.

⭐While the book is interesting, it suffers from a serious lack of illustrations and source information. Certain sections of the text would benefit greatly from illustrations, such as the portion on Doggerland. I wanted to refer to the sources mentioned in his text, but they are not specifically noted. Meaningful footnotes or end notes would permit the reader to conduct further research and would help validate the information given. There is ample speculation without meaningful justification.

⭐This book should probably be made compulsory for all those EDF/Daily Mail xenophobes who rant about the loss of our “English way of life” and the threat of immigration.It shows we are in reality all immigrants and at times from places far further than we probably imagine. What that heady mix has brought is the England we know and also the England we knew….It is a fascinating journey and one that gave me hope.

⭐Wow! This is an excellent book. I thought that Bryan Skykes, “Saxons, Celts and Vikings” was good, but this book is much better. The science is more up to date of course, but this is written by a historian who can write the science in a way that is easy to understand and much more interesting. I am bowled over by what is known about early homo sapiensWhat a fantastic book! Much more interesting then similar books.

⭐It is a most interesting book

⭐Very good. Easy to read and better than similar books I have read.Lots of interesting information and seems very up to date. Recommented.

⭐Enjoyed but wish there would have been more maps of old England ,Scotland and islands near by from 1200- 1700 to allow one to follow writing .

⭐A lot of incorrect information. This man lives in a monodimensional reality and hasn’t heard that Radical Feminists named history as his story, and then introduced a new word into the lexicon – herstory. This aside he could have read the work of Briffault, who, with his daughter, in 1927 wrote a 3 volume work, The Mothers – gathering together fascinating information about women from existing manuscripts, accounts by missionaries, and many earlier writers. A striking piece of information is that in Paleolithic times you would not have known a man from a woman by seeing them from the back – as they were the same size and height. Moffatt credits men for the cave paintings giving the reason that women wouldn’t have been able to reach so high as men !!! Actually caves were safe places where pregnant women and animals gave birth – many painted animals are pregnant. Also there are caves with the sign of the vulva at their entrance – and in later his story many “heroes” are born in caves. There are less than 5% of drawings that depict hunting. During this time there were also temporary buildings where food remains have been found – along with carvings. Watching a film of an Inuit father and son out fishing, and then in the evening carving small sculptures I wondered if carving was a male activity and painting a female activity. Certainly in some cultures only women are the paintresses, as they give birth – the Lakota Sioux and the Women of Militha in India – made famous by Mrs Ghandi.

⭐This book was particularly disappointing as a follow up to the far superior ‘The Origins of the British’ by Stephen Oppenheimer. There was very little genetic information contained in it, and while Moffat did manage to mention that tribes on both sides of the Channel had the same names, he failed to pick up on the point that most of those tribes were germanic – not Celtic. If you want to know where the British come from, this book is not likely to tell you too much.

⭐This book was a big let down. I expected its main theme to be an analysis of the British population based on genetic data, essentially explaining where the British had come from and what the genetic breakdown is.In fact it is a rehash of the widely known and accepted history of Britain dressed up with incidental genetic information.

⭐It would be nice to have included some information on pre-Indo-European peoples and why, for example, so many apparently ‘indigenous’ Britons show some degree of Mongoloid blood (say 1-3%) not consistent with having a Chinese grandfather but indicative of racial mixing.

⭐Just had my DNA done. This book explains the background beautifully

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