John Waller describes the changing ideas concerning heredity from antiquity to the modern biological understanding, considering both the efforts over the centuries to identify the physiological mechanisms involved and how views of heredity have been used to justify or condemn inequalities of class, gender, and race.

Here is a complete history of Thalassaemia, the most common type of genetic disorder in the human population, and one of the first whose genetic basis was established. Treatment is also discussed as well at an assessment of how molecular approaches are impacting medicine. - Publisher.--

This book gathers the expertise of 30 evolutionary biologists from around the globe to highlight how applying the field of quantitative genetics - the analysis of the genetic basis of complex traits - aids in the study of wild populations.

'Ten distinguished scientists attack the concept of race as a biologically unsound, socially invalid and prejudicial means of human classification.' -- cover.

700 new words added to reflect recent advances in the field. Appendixes include historical chronology; a list of periodicals; laboratories engaged in studies of human genetics in Canada, Mexico, and the United States; and teaching aids. 1st ed., 1968.