From Anthropometry to Genomics

Book excerpt: "Jonathan Friedlaender has devoted much of his professional life to studies of human population variation in Pacific Islanders.. His collaborator on this memoir of his life and experiences in the Pacific is Joanna Radin, a young but remarkably knowledgeable historian of science currently conducting graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. These two professionals weave a fascinating fabric of complex texture that incorporates the educational, political, governmental, and research climate of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with the trials and tribulations of a young researcher and academic trying to make his way in a highly competitive arena. The book is much more than a series of recollections about one man's life; rather, it is a history of an important era in the development of anthropological genetics and the dramatic transition in this science that took place in the early 1980s. Friedlaender's book should have appeal to a number of audiences - students, professional anthropologists, and lay readers, alike... Jonathan Friedlaender's Reflections is a valuable addition to the historical record of this important science. This is a worthwhile book to read for anyone with interests in the history of science or the history of a science." From the Foreword by Professor Michael A. Little, Binghamton University