The Gene made me feel like I took a semester long seminar on the history of genetics. This book is truly astonishing in its scope. From Mendel's experiments breeding pea plants in a monastery to mapping the full human genome and cloning, this book is a brilliant and highly readable journey through the field as well as an exploration of the difficult ethical issues we still have to contend with as our scientific and technological capabilities expand at an exponential rate. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about what makes us us. It's an undertaking for sure, but so worth it.