Preface
Introduction
ONE: Reconciliation Projects
TWO: Ground Work
THREE: Game Changer
FOUR: The Pursuit of African Ancestry
FIVE: Roots Revelations
SIX: Acts of Reparations
SEVEN: The Rosa Parks of the Reparations Litigation Movement
EIGHT: DNA Diasporas
NINE: Racial Politics After the Genome
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Alondra Nelson is Dean of Social Science and professor of sociology and gender studies at Columbia University. She is author of the award-winning book Body and Soul- The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Science, Boston Globe, and the Guardian. She lives in New York City.
“Meticulously detailed. Nelson adds another chapter to the somber
history of injustice toward African-Americans, but it is one in
which science is enriching lives by forging new identities and
connections to ancestral homelands.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The Social Life of DNA is an important contribution to many
literatures and will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for academic
and public discussion of the intertwined relationships among race,
science, and policy in the coming years.”
—Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
“One of this generation’s most gifted scholars examines the
unfolding mysteries of DNA sequencing and the limits and promises
of genetic genealogy at the intersection of race, politics and
identity. Alondra Nelson brilliantly guides us on a journey of
discovery in this cautionary tale of the high-stakes efforts to
reconcile our racial origins and to find redemption as a country.
Eye-opening, provocative and deeply humane.”
—Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns
“Alondra Nelson takes us into a complex and endlessly fascinating
space where genetic ancestry testing meets racial politics. With
her unique and wonderful gifts for research and insight into
genetic science, ethnography and history, The Social Life of DNA
comes at a moment when the questions it raises about race and
social justice couldn’t be more pressing and urgent.”
—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“Nelson explores this large, sprawling, fascinating subject with
clarity, passion, rigor, and a keen eye for revealing detail. The
Social Life of DNA will appeal to a broad readership interested in
history, race, and science. Geneticists, sociologists,
anthropologists, political scientists, and jurists will be
stimulated by reading this book. It is a brilliant work.”
—Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School
and author of The Persistence of the Color Line
“Alondra Nelson tells a story for anyone interested in their own
family, even their own memory. Using fresh genetics research and
writing like an investigative reporter, Nelson clears up the
mystery about our society’s rush to DNA.”
—Edward Ball, author of Slaves in the Family
“The Social Life of DNA is a brilliant ethnography of the
recreational uses of DNA...Timely and original, this book offers a
nuanced and engrossing negotiation between genetic truth and
‘truthiness.’”
—Patricia J. Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia
University and columnist for The Nation
“‘The double helix now lies at the center of some of the most
significant issues of our time,’ Alondra Nelson writes in this
valuable and illuminating book. Since 2003, she has been following
the ways that DNA intertwines with race, and The Social Life of DNA
is her clear-eyed, sharp, and closely observed account of the
phenomenon. It couldn’t be more timely.”
—Jonathan Weiner, Maxwell M. Geffen Professor of Medical and
Scientific Journalism at Columbia Journalism School
“Alondra Nelson’s account of how genetic data was transformed into
contested political culture is a lucid as it is path-breaking. This
exhilarating survey of how DNA became an agent in the politics of
reparation and reconciliation has not only extended analysis of
race and racism but created a new field of comparative
research.”
—Paul Gilroy, professor of American and English literature, King’s
College, London
Ask a Question About this Product More... |