“An illuminating analysis of the social and political realities with which this scientific question has been entwined. . . . This is a timely, insightful, and exceptionally well-researched book.” (
Sociology)
“
The Genealogical Science is a great achievement. It introduces a general readership to the scholarly debates around genetic history as they have played out in scientific journals in recent years.” (
Isis)
“Abu El-Haj’s book is highly recommended to anyone wishing to delve into the political, cultural, and historical entanglements of ‘Jewish genetic history,’ but also, as a perceptive and rich case study, it is recommended to anyone interested in human population genetics and its relationship to politics and identity politics more generally.” (
Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences)
“Situating her work at the intersection of history of science, philosophy of science, sociology, and anthropology, Abu El-Haj offers specific, precise, and well-grounded arguments about how the meanings of biological difference have changed over time.” (
Metascience)
“The Genealogical Science is an important book, deeply informed about contemporary genetics and the cultures of genealogical analysis that have emerged from the wealth of scientific work. It is commendably careful in its analysis but also terrifically insightful about the implications of the work and its cultural and political effects as well as richly perceptive about the epistemological, political, and cultural presuppositions of the scientific work itself. Nadia Abu El-Haj accordingly offers the most sustained analysis to date of both the scientific and socio-cultural grounds of genetic and genealogical science. In doing so, she significantly advances and nuances recent claims in anthropology and science studies about the entanglements of nature and culture, science and politics.”--David Theo Goldberg, University of California, Irvine
(David Theo Goldberg 2011-10-17)
“
The Genealogical Science is a wonderful account of how old-fashioned race science has come to be re-defined by resort to the most recent developments in genetics. But this book is not simply another story of the ideological uses to which science may be put. Nadia Abu El-Haj has provided the reader with a very detailed analysis of the historical entanglement between science and politics. Her study should be required reading for anyone interested in the sociology of science—and also for those dealing with Middle Eastern nationalisms. This is a work of outstanding value for scholarship.” (Talal Asad, City University of New York 2012-01-03)