
Control
The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $11.87
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Greg Patmore
-
By:
-
Adam Rutherford
About this listen
How did an obscure academic idea pave the way to the Holocaust within just fifty years?
Control is a book about eugenics, what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls “a defining idea of the twentieth century.” Inspired by Darwin’s ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for molding the British population, and quickly spread to America, where it was embraced by presidents, funded by Gilded Age monopolists, and enshrined into racist American laws that became the ideological cornerstone of the Third Reich. Despite this horrific legacy, eugenics looms large today as the advances in genetics in the last thirty years—from the sequencing of the human genome to modern gene editing techniques— have brought the idea of population purification back into the mainstream.
Eugenics has “a short history, but a long past,” Rutherford writes. The first half of Control is the history of an idea, from its roots in key philosophical texts of the classical world all the way into their genocidal enactment in the twentieth century. The second part of the audiobook explores how eugenics operates today, as part of our language and culture, as part of current political and racial discussions, and as an eternal temptation to powerful people who wish to sculpt society through reproductive control.
With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions—did eugenics work in Nazi Germany? And could it work today?—revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.
©2023 Adam Rutherford (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Great info
- By Stephen Dickson on 05-12-25
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
The Battle for Your Brain
- Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
- By: Nita A. Farahany
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions.
-
-
John Stuart Mill for the Digital Age
- By Joe on 06-05-23
By: Nita A. Farahany
-
How to Argue with a Racist
- What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
-
-
Terrible argument repeated ad-nauseum
- By Niall on 11-17-20
By: Adam Rutherford
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Imbeciles
- The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
- By: Adam Cohen
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imbeciles is the shocking story of Buck v. Bell, a legal case that challenges our faith in American justice. A gripping courtroom drama, it pits a helpless young woman against powerful scientists, lawyers, and judges who believed that eugenic measures were necessary to save the nation from being “swamped with incompetence.”
-
-
Compelling Concept, Aggravating Execution
- By Gillian on 04-05-16
By: Adam Cohen
-
The Earth Transformed
- An Untold History
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
- Length: 29 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our current environmental crisis feels difficult to predict and understand. But climate change and its effects on us are not new. In a bold narrative that spans centuries and continents, Peter Frankopan argues that nature has always played a fundamental role in the writing of history.
-
-
A Thoughtful History of A Complex Phenomenon
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 04-21-23
By: Peter Frankopan
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Great info
- By Stephen Dickson on 05-12-25
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
The Battle for Your Brain
- Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
- By: Nita A. Farahany
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions.
-
-
John Stuart Mill for the Digital Age
- By Joe on 06-05-23
By: Nita A. Farahany
-
How to Argue with a Racist
- What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
-
-
Terrible argument repeated ad-nauseum
- By Niall on 11-17-20
By: Adam Rutherford
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Imbeciles
- The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
- By: Adam Cohen
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imbeciles is the shocking story of Buck v. Bell, a legal case that challenges our faith in American justice. A gripping courtroom drama, it pits a helpless young woman against powerful scientists, lawyers, and judges who believed that eugenic measures were necessary to save the nation from being “swamped with incompetence.”
-
-
Compelling Concept, Aggravating Execution
- By Gillian on 04-05-16
By: Adam Cohen
-
The Earth Transformed
- An Untold History
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
- Length: 29 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our current environmental crisis feels difficult to predict and understand. But climate change and its effects on us are not new. In a bold narrative that spans centuries and continents, Peter Frankopan argues that nature has always played a fundamental role in the writing of history.
-
-
A Thoughtful History of A Complex Phenomenon
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 04-21-23
By: Peter Frankopan
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
The Undertow
- Scenes from a Slow Civil War
- By: Jeff Sharlet
- Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.
-
-
I'm just not feeling this one....
- By J. Richmond on 08-04-23
By: Jeff Sharlet
-
Human Errors
- A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
-
-
From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes to...Aliens?
- By Katy.LED on 12-04-18
By: Nathan H. Lents
-
Jewish Space Lasers
- The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories
- By: Mike Rothschild
- Narrated by: Jon Vertullo
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2018 Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media to share her suspicions that the California wildfires were started by 'space solar generators' which were funded by powerful, mysterious backers. Instantly, thousands of people rallied around her, blaming the fires on "Jewish space lasers" and, ultimately, the Rothschild family. For more than 200 years, the name "Rothschild" has been synonymous with two things: great wealth, and conspiracy theories about what they're "really doing" with it.
-
-
Overall well done, but strays off course
- By Jeremy and Maureen Lawson on 02-17-24
By: Mike Rothschild
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
-
-
Book is good but contains bias
- By Heinz-Jürgen MacSwain on 01-29-24
By: Adam Tooze
-
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals.
-
-
Fantastic Book
- By Peter Jensen on 09-08-22
By: Steve Brusatte
-
Unmask Alice
- LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries
- By: Rick Emerson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous.
-
-
I’m from Pleasant Grove where rumors of Jay’s Journal are alive and well
- By Ruby Tuesday on 10-06-22
By: Rick Emerson
-
Homegrown
- Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Toobin
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces the dramatic history and profound legacy of Timothy McVeigh, who once declared, “I believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.” But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. With news-breaking reportage, Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001.
-
-
Irresponsible Ramblings of a “Left Wing” Idiot
- By Jef Rasmussen on 09-23-23
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
Enlightenment Now
- The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
-
-
We live in the best of all times
- By Neuron on 02-25-18
By: Steven Pinker
-
The Alignment Problem
- Machine Learning and Human Values
- By: Brian Christian
- Narrated by: Brian Christian
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole - and appear to assess black and white defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And autonomous vehicles on our streets can injure or kill.
-
-
Required reading for any AI course
- By ehan ferguson on 11-16-20
By: Brian Christian
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
How to Argue with a Racist
- What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
-
-
Terrible argument repeated ad-nauseum
- By Niall on 11-17-20
By: Adam Rutherford
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
The Book of Humans
- A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee's. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we? In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the "human animal".
-
-
Scattered and anecdotal
- By Nemo71 on 09-29-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Eugenics and Other Evils
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the first three decades of the 20th century, eugenics, the scientific control of human breeding, was a popular cause within enlightened and progressive segments of the English-speaking world. This prophetic volume counters the intellectual nihilism of Nietzsche, while simultaneously rebuking Western notions of progress - biological or otherwise. Chesterton expands his criticism of eugenics into what he calls "a more general criticism of the modern craze for scientific officialism and strict social organization."
-
-
Truly Great!
- By No to Statism on 07-26-19
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
The Weimar Years
- Rise and Fall 1918–1933
- By: Frank McDonough
- Narrated by: Paul McGann
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Established in 1918–19, in the wake of Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. The Weimar Years is a vivid narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature.
-
-
Depth
- By Amazon Customer on 02-02-24
By: Frank McDonough
-
How to Argue with a Racist
- What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
-
-
Terrible argument repeated ad-nauseum
- By Niall on 11-17-20
By: Adam Rutherford
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
The Book of Humans
- A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee's. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we? In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the "human animal".
-
-
Scattered and anecdotal
- By Nemo71 on 09-29-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Eugenics and Other Evils
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the first three decades of the 20th century, eugenics, the scientific control of human breeding, was a popular cause within enlightened and progressive segments of the English-speaking world. This prophetic volume counters the intellectual nihilism of Nietzsche, while simultaneously rebuking Western notions of progress - biological or otherwise. Chesterton expands his criticism of eugenics into what he calls "a more general criticism of the modern craze for scientific officialism and strict social organization."
-
-
Truly Great!
- By No to Statism on 07-26-19
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
The Weimar Years
- Rise and Fall 1918–1933
- By: Frank McDonough
- Narrated by: Paul McGann
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Established in 1918–19, in the wake of Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. The Weimar Years is a vivid narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature.
-
-
Depth
- By Amazon Customer on 02-02-24
By: Frank McDonough
Excellent 2023 update on genetics
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.