DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America

By Bryan Sykes

Book Overview

The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve now turns his sights on the United States, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. From the blue-blooded pockets of old-WASP New England to the vast tribal lands of the Navajo, Bryan Sykes takes us on a historical genetic tour, interviewing genealogists, geneticists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans with compelling ancestral stories. His findings suggest:

- Of Americans whose ancestors came as slaves, virtually all have some European DNA.
- Racial intermixing appears least common among descendants of early New England colonists.
- There is clear evidence of Jewish genes among descendants of southwestern Spanish Catholics.
- Among white Americans, evidence of African DNA is most common in the South.
- European genes appeared among Native Americans as early as ten thousand years ago.

An unprecedented look into America's genetic mosaic and how we perceive race, DNA USA challenges the very notion of what we think it means to be American.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871404125
• ISBN13: 9780871404121
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

See the USA through your DNA

This book is over a decade old, so sme of the solutions may have changed. This is a fascinating read. It starts out reading like one of those stodgy reports in Kinsey. But quickly clears up the different types of DNA used in testing with the strengths of each type. And not to burst your bubble, we also learn what DNA cannot do in tracking down our ancestry. Soon, we are tracking down different clans and other groups. This includes many begets like the Bible, but there are many interesting tidbits about each clan and group as we go along. The other information is just as fascinating, if not more as the dry DNA facts. He also put in a few plugs for his other books. Then we break into a full-blown travel log. I do not know if it helps to have been in the places before reading the book; however, I was, so his descriptions of locations brought back memories. Still, this part of the book is peppered with interesting facts about what people think of DNA. We get a small dissertation on Sequoyah "George Gist" (1767-1843), inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. He does not wrap the book up with a synopsis of what was read or even a target of the writing. By this time, we do not care and feel a little sad that he stopped. I took the DNA spit test, and it matched my known history. I am a little disappointed that I did not have anything exotic. Some people got a percentage of an unknown amount at this time.