In her recent sociogenomics manifesto The Genetic Lottery, Kathryn Paige Harden sets out to rescue behavior genetics from the spectres of racism and eugenics. Harden portrays eugenics much like a trait in a pedigree chart: passed on from eugenicist to eugenicist, predictably uniform, easily traceable, and unchanging over time. To promote her monolithic portrayal of eugenics, Harden’s narrative is simple and obfuscates the complexities that have allowed eugenics to survive - even flourish - within the field of genetics.

A thorough history of scientific ideas about the long reach of the womb in which you are gestated, Richardson’s book breaks new ground, challenging the reader to rethink much of what they have so often been told about the relationship between a pregnant person and their fetus.