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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari,

John Purcell (Translator),

Haim Watzman (Goodreads Author) (Translator)

4.41 · Rating details · 560,439 ratings · 36,036 reviews

A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at le ...more

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Paperback, First Harper Perennial edition, 464 pages

Published May 15th 2018 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2011)

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Jul 25, 2015 Maciek rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, non-fiction, read-in-2015

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book bound to appear on a large number of coffee tables and favorite lists, and be picked up even by those who normally would not find the time for reading. It will certainly not be the next A Brief History of Time, which is often named as the world's top unfinished popular bestseller.

Both A Brief History of Time and Sapiens share a similar, worthy goal - to explain complex issues in a way which can actually be understood and comprehended by most people ...more

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dna Keep it simple, stupid.
We are on the other side of the hill now, where we can dream bigger. It's harder to be satisfied.
We humans desire choice - bu ...more
Jan 24, 2021 07:53AM

William Evolution Cannot See the Future

... so it produces a wide range of behaviours and skills for the best chance at some of the parents begetting successf ...more
Jan 24, 2021 08:59AM

May 01, 2017 William2 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, science, 21-ce, race, biology, israel, translation, illustrated, myth

This book is a superficial gloss on human history. Nice try but it excludes too much data in favor of an overarching conceptual view to be deeply interesting. Stopped reading for reasons detailed below at p. 304 of 416.

Considering the outlandishness of some of its claims—the downside of the Agricultural Revolution, the joys of Empire—the book seems weirdly under-sourced. The bibliography is beyond meagre. Don't get me wrong, I like a little informed speculation as much as anyone. Take for exampl ...more

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Sep 23, 2018 Emily May rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, nonfiction

Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?

What a fantastic book. I can see why everyone from Bill Gates to Barack Obama was raving about it. It's an extremely compelling, accessible history - almost like a novelization - of humankind.

I've read a few of these "brief history of the world" books, most notably A History of the World in 100 Objects and Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I liked both, but neither is as eng ...more

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May 05, 2015 Marc Gerstein rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Had I stopped reading after the first section, I’d have given this a five stars and whined that the Goodreads platform doesn’t aloe reviewers to go higher. But I didn’t stop. I kept reading, . . . until it got so bad, I found myself unable to do more than skim, and eventually, to just skipping large chunks.

It starts out as a fascinating discussion of the development and rise of our species, homo sapiens. But starting in the second section on the Agricultural Revolution, Harari shift gears and dr Had I stopped reading after the first section, I’d have given this a five stars and whined that the Goodreads platform doesn’t aloe reviewers to go higher. But I didn’t stop. I kept reading, . . . until it got so bad, I found myself unable to do more than skim, and eventually, to just skipping large chunks.

It starts out as a fascinating discussion of the development and rise of our species, homo sapiens. But starting in the second section on the Agricultural Revolution, Harari shift gears and drops any pretense of an scholarly work. From that point on, it’s all personal bias all the time. This guy absolutely hates human beings and society. It seems that he is completely stuck in the idea that the world would have been better off had humanity simply stayed put in the hunter-gatherer stage.It seems all the countless billions of humans who lived since then are deluded and don't get it, and that only he understands. Yeah, right!

OK. There are worse sins than personal bias. Many great writers have it and let it show. But unlike Harari, the good ones work to try to justify the positions they take. Harari, on the other hand just bombards readers with one opinion after another and treats them as proven fact, even though what he says is often debatable or out and out wrong. That’s one of the reasons I gave up on a close reading as I progressed into the second half. Even when it seemed as if Harari was selling me something I didn’t know (which did not occur often), I simply did not trust him. An author can choose to forego many things. Credibility and trust are not among them.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this mess is through a conversation I once had among people who liked to discuss philosophy. Somehow or other, though, this conversation veered off into a set of irritating rants on how western society sucks. The thing that sticks out most in my memory is how the host went off on a diatribe about the greatness of nature and Native Americans and about how he was fine being a non-vegetarian because the cows understood human need for meat and were happy to offer themselves as a precious spiritual gift to humanity. My reply: “That conclusion is based on interviews with how many cows?” The conversation abruptly ended. That is exactly the way I reacted to the self-serving gibberish offered by Harari under the guise of scholarly presentation. ...more

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Sep 05, 2013 Moran rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I believe I am relatively familiar with history in general, and I'm usually not very excited about reading more about it. But this book was something else.
Beautifully written and easy to read, this book just made me want to know more and more about how the author thinks the world evolved to what it is today. Revolution by revolution, religion by religion, conception by conception, things were simplified and yet still maintained valid points - and it was never boring.

The best thing about it was ...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Liad Magen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book had changed my life, the way I think, the way I precept the world.
I think it should be an obligatory book for everyone on this planet.

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Jan 28, 2019 Manny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-biography, science, linguistics-and-philosophy

I see many people complaining about the wild leaps of logic and the lack of footnotes - but honestly, what did you expect in a 500 page book, not even with small print, that's supposed to give you a summary of all history from the emergence of Homo sapiens to the present day? Personally, I thought the basic idea was terrific: the author has taken it upon himself to defend the Book of Genesis and show you that it's all true. I have seen creationists attempt the same thing and fail miserably, with I see many people complaining about the wild leaps of logic and the lack of footnotes - but honestly, what did you expect in a 500 page book, not even with small print, that's supposed to give you a summary of all history from the emergence of Homo sapiens to the present day? Personally, I thought the basic idea was terrific: the author has taken it upon himself to defend the Book of Genesis and show you that it's all true. I have seen creationists attempt the same thing and fail miserably, with their pseudo-scientific explanations of why the Earth is actually six thousand years old, how the Flood explains geology, etc. None of this nonsense for clever Dr Harari. He doesn't bother arguing about the places where science has obviously got it right (the Big Bang, plate tectonics, evolution), but takes them as givens. He doesn't get into the tangled reasoning about where a Creator might come into the picture; here, there is none.

Instead, he cuts to the chase and gives you a story that's actually very interesting. About ten thousand years ago, people largely stopped being hunter-gatherers and started being farmers. This is usually presented by modern commentators as a Good Thing. But in Genesis, it isn't: we are expelled from the Garden of Eden and forced to eke out a miserable existence tilling the unforgiving soil, and now we have to live with the consequences. We have had the presumption to eat the fruit of the Tree so that we may become as gods, knowing good and evil. Harari ingeniously defends the idea that this, more or less literally, is what happened. We became farmers, then we started developing better technology, then we constructed cities, and finally, very recently, we invented science. We have made the most of our position as lords of creation, driving many species extinct and turning a few others into efficient machines for producing meat. But none of this has made us happier. In fact, as the Bible says, it's made us more and more miserable. We're evolutionarily adapted for being hunter-gatherers, not software engineers or stock traders. We are on the verge of learning how to conquer death and make ourselves immortal: but even then, we won't be as happy as we were back in the Garden. We'll more likely find new and even worse ways to cut ourselves off from our true heritage.

Harari takes the position that our great strength as a species, the thing that sets us apart from all other living beings, is our ability to make up stories about things that are only to be found in our imaginations, and then treat them as though they were real; by this process, they become real. As he points out, empires and religions and money don't actually exist, but now they rule our lives. He's particularly interesting on the subject of money. Again, I can see some readers who dislike what they call his cheerleading for modern Western society. I don't think Harari is a fan of the West, and the book is in my humble opinion not Eurocentric at all; for example, Harari seems to like Buddhism rather more than Christianity. He's just pointing out the indisputable fact that Western society has taken over the world, and he ascribes that, more than anything else, to the West's ability to make up a better story about money, which we call capitalism. If this is where you're coming from, talking about the power of myth to transform human existence, you don't go overboard with the footnotes. There are no footnotes in the Bible. You do your best to tell a great story, and you hope that it will transform our existence.

I think Harari's done pretty well here in terms of achieving those goals. Kudos.

[I also have a frivolous review of the book here.] ...more

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Sep 26, 2017 Adina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

It is again unpopular opinion time! It seems it becomes a rule for me not to enjoy a book that everyone seems to love. Well, someone has to. Here we go with the review. Prepare your tomatoes and raw eggs (someone actually threw a raw egg at me once for fun but it bounced from my bum )

Sapiens’ beginning was fantastic. I loved the author’s voice and the information about the early days of the human kind was fascinating. I did not read any non-fiction about the origin of humans so I was excited to It is again unpopular opinion time! It seems it becomes a rule for me not to enjoy a book that everyone seems to love. Well, someone has to. Here we go with the review. Prepare your tomatoes and raw eggs (someone actually threw a raw egg at me once for fun but it bounced from my bum )

Sapiens’ beginning was fantastic. I loved the author’s voice and the information about the early days of the human kind was fascinating. I did not read any non-fiction about the origin of humans so I was excited to understand our origins better. I could not stop highlighting interesting passages to include in my review or to read later. Here are some of the ones that picked my interest.

“It’s relatively easy to agree that only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”

“Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it. Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals.”

However, everything started to go downhill from somewhere in the middle of Part II. From an eager and excited reader I slowly became pissed off, disappointed and struggled to finish. I had several problems that plagued my reading experience and I plan to exemplify them below.

First of all, I soon grew tired of the author’s ironic and condescending humor. His ego was transpiring from all his words and his personal opinions and the way he tried to enforce them annoyed me more and more.

Secondly, I felt like many of his assumptions and extrapolations had no proof and they only represent the author’s personal opinion. For example, the way he supported for the whole book that humans were better of as hunter-gathers without bringing no real arguments to support his opinion.

Finally, I had a problem with the scope of Sapiens. As the titles suggests, the book tries to be A Brief History of Humankind. I believe he did not succeed very well to do that and the reason is that it is quite impossible to do what the author planned in less than 500 pages. The task is too vast. The result is mix of everything with no structure, jumping from one subject to another and confusing the reader. The information was too vague, too general, it all resembled a set of interesting trivia.

When reading other negative reviews of Sapiens I stumbled repeatedly on a recommendation: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The book was already on my TBR so it is going to be the next read on the subject. I hope it will be better. ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-french, american-21st-c, history, political-theory

History and Sociology for Dummies, this book is almost irrecoverably watered down intellectually. [and for all those commenters that think I am calling them dummies, I am simply referring to the popular XXX For Dummies books and I am not intentionally insulting folks that enjoyed the book.] Sapiens does make some interesting points and probably opens a few debates, but it disappointed me. There are lots of soundbites here, especially the oft-quoted one about the agricultural revolution being "hi History and Sociology for Dummies, this book is almost irrecoverably watered down intellectually. [and for all those commenters that think I am calling them dummies, I am simply referring to the popular XXX For Dummies books and I am not intentionally insulting folks that enjoyed the book.] Sapiens does make some interesting points and probably opens a few debates, but it disappointed me. There are lots of soundbites here, especially the oft-quoted one about the agricultural revolution being "history's greatest ripoff", but they remain soundbites because they never really reach a conclusion.

The book starts out alright was the hunter-gatherer civilizations are discussed in some detail and without focusing exclusively on North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Harari's chapters here did make for decent reading about the concept the author calls the cognitive revolution which separates us from other animals. Unfortunately, the next section about the agricultural revolution is a bit too polemical. Yes, it was a radical change and yes it did lead to new problems (disease, famine, etc), but without it, the human species would likely have never evolved to the point of me typing this text on my laptop and you reading it in a browser. There are not parallel paths proposed, just a vague condemnation of agriculture before he takes on the subject of religions. Here, he talks of the evolution of monotheism from the polytheistic systems that abounded before. I felt he did not discuss in sufficient death the animist systems (which still dominate Africa, South America, and the Arctic among others.) He seems to favor Buddhism (the pages there have a much more tolerant and fawning tone than those of the other religions) which seemed a little intellectually dishonest to me - I mean if he is trying to develop a dispassionate argument about how religions develop, he should not take a particular position without announcing it first. Anyway, after this, the book covers the industrial revolution and brings us up to modern times.

Honestly, I felt that the end of the book really soured the whole product for me. Well, I was already annoyed with all the cute phrases and the prolific use of "!" at the end of 20% of the sentences (OK, I am exaggerating but seriously, a "history" book shouldn't use the exclamation point says the snob reviewer). But when the author sets up an argument about where we should be headed as a human race, he then goes off on bizarre tangents about cyber technology and refers to an obscure Project Gilgamesh (which unless I missed something major earlier in the book, he never mentioned before). I felt that the last chapter just came out of nowhere and made absolutely no sense. Perhaps, as other reviews here on GR have suspected, no one actually reads this book, preferring to leave it unsullied on their coffee table as a prop to their showoff intellectualism. In any case, it didn't do it for me.
Unfortunately, my in-laws who bought me Sapiens also bought me the sequel so I suppose I will be guilted into reading it at some point. In conclusion, I prefer reading REAL history books with caffeine rather than this decaffeinated, saccharin substitute for them. I would highly suggest the more factual and far less polemical Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies which deals with a similar topic, but without the excessive punctuation (!).

I am not alone in my disdain for this over-publicized waste of trees. A friend passed me this article: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/public... in which the author concludes:
"But Sapiens provides us with no resources for answering questions about the moral implications of scientific and technological change. A commitment to a reductionist, mechanistic view of Homo sapiens may give us some insight into some of the aspects of our past most tied to our material nature. But Harari’s view of culture and of ethical norms as fundamentally fictional makes impossible any coherent moral framework for thinking about and shaping our future. And it asks us to pretend that we are not what we know ourselves to be — thinking and feeling subjects, moral agents with free will, and social beings whose culture builds upon the facts of the physical world but is not limited to them."
This book is waaaaay overrated.

As an aside, I wanted to briefly talk compare The Overstory and The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World with this book. In the Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, the author bemoans the wanton destruction caused by the agricultural revolution, but to my mind proposes no alternative and just leaves the reader with empty, vacuous soundbites. In the former two books, we are given a vast insight into how trees communicate and how they are intimately related to human beings. Yes, our ignorance of their speech (as alien to us as would be expected because our life spans and perception of time is on the same magnitude as that of flies to humans) has caused irreparable damage to the ecosystem. And there is an obvious domino effect: global warming and climate change. But, in the two books about trees, even if a militant outlook is shown to be a dead-end, it is demonstrated that being custodians of nature, we can help forests come back and preserve our biodiversity. It is not all of humankind that is to blame, as Harari would have us believe, but rather, rapacious grift driving large corporations which reap a direct, short-term financial benefit from wholesale environmental destruction. If the law was enforced rather than trampled upon, the jobs could be converted to conservation-related jobs and the forests could be preserved. I found that this positive message was stronger than any of the superficial aphorisms in Harari's book. ...more

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Dec 09, 2017 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: israeli, philosophy-theology, science

Choose Your Fictions Carefully

There are far too many fascinating assertions in this book to even mention. But for me the most fascinating is Harari’s idea of the Cognitive Revolution which took place about 70,000 years ago. "We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation. Why did it occur in Sapiens DNA rather than in that of Neanderthals? It was a matter of pure chance, as far as we can tell. But it’s more important to understand the consequences of the Tree of Knowledge mutation than its caus Choose Your Fictions Carefully

There are far too many fascinating assertions in this book to even mention. But for me the most fascinating is Harari’s idea of the Cognitive Revolution which took place about 70,000 years ago. "We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation. Why did it occur in Sapiens DNA rather than in that of Neanderthals? It was a matter of pure chance, as far as we can tell. But it’s more important to understand the consequences of the Tree of Knowledge mutation than its causes."

It is this mysterious, and as yet unexplained, change in human genetics that he pinpoints as the primary reason for the ultimate success of the species Homo Sapiens in competition not just with established flora and fauna but with other human forms. Interestingly, Harari’s argument also establishes the anthropological foundations for literary post-modernism.

To over-simplify, but not by much, the Cognitive Revolution of Sapiens is precisely the ability to tell, and eventually read and write, stories, that is, fictional narratives which are interesting, entertaining, and above all convincing. This ability, an evolutionary enigma because it does not give obviously immediate advantage, underlies human ability to organize beyond very small units, to cooperate in matters of survival, and to prevail against competing species which are stronger, quicker, better adapted to the environment, able to speak in a more varied manner, and even more clever.

These narratives, according to the narrative told by Harari, begin in gossip, talk among ourselves about ourselves, which is a behaviour that is now as far as anyone knows unique to Homo Sapiens, and may even have even been unique among others of the genus Homo. Gossip leads to shared tales about common experiences, ancestors, and problems. These tales evolve into myths which are widely shared and identify large groups as ‘us’. "There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings."

Such tales incrementally employ an increasing lexicon of fictional, that is to say abstract, ideas. It is these ideas which allow the ultimate success of Sapiens, not necessarily because of their pragmatic qualities, but because, whatever they are, they are shared:

“Myths, it transpired, are stronger than anyone could have imagined. When the Agricultural Revolution opened opportunities for the creation of crowded cities and mighty empires, people invented stories about great gods, motherlands and joint stock companies to provide the needed social links. While human evolution was crawling at its usual snail’s pace, the human imagination was building astounding networks of mass cooperation, unlike any other ever seen on earth.”

As modern existential and linguistic philosophers have thought for some time, these ideas - scientific, religious, technological, social, legal - are fundamental fictions that become progressively indistinguishable from the ‘natural’ world which is apart from the imagined world of language. As Harari states what is a reiteration of this philosophical conclusion:

“Three main factors prevent people from realising that the order organising their lives exists only in their imagination:... a. The imagined order is embedded in the material world... b. The imagined order shapes our desires... c. The imagined order is inter-subjective.”

It is this invisibility of these linguistic fictions which constitute daily life that is both the greatest strength and greatest flaw of our species. We are able to organise ourselves, because of them, to travel to the Moon. We are also able to believe a half dozen untruths before breakfast. The internet is perhaps the best example of the paradox of our fraught existence since it promotes both cooperation and mass deceit.

For me the implications are clear: 1) literature is the only hope for the world. Fiction - novels, fairy tales, fantasies, and lots of 'em - are the only means to get a grip on reality. Reading lots of fiction developes the aesthetic sense. And it is only through aesthetics that one can decide what is important and how to deal with what is important. 2) It is also clear to me that novels cultivated our species genetically over millennia for this very reason - to get us better at reading them.

Postscript: For a rather plausible opposing view to Harari’s, see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

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Oct 03, 2019 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science, nonfiction

”Despite the astonishing things that humans are capable of doing, we remain unsure of our goals and we seem to be as discontented as ever. We have advanced from canoes to galleys to steamships to space shuttles – but nobody knows where we’re going. We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power. Worse still, humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 Sean Barrs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-star-reads, non-fiction

This is a hugely ambitious book; it takes a very broad approach, condensing huge topics into short chapters in an attempt to provide a basis for the development of our entire species. The parts I found most interesting were regarding ecology and man’s interaction with the ecosystem.

Human history is that of ecological disaster. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we fuck up the ecosystem and leave our mark of destruction. This is not a new phenomenon, it’s something Sapiens have always done. When we This is a hugely ambitious book; it takes a very broad approach, condensing huge topics into short chapters in an attempt to provide a basis for the development of our entire species. The parts I found most interesting were regarding ecology and man’s interaction with the ecosystem.

Human history is that of ecological disaster. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we fuck up the ecosystem and leave our mark of destruction. This is not a new phenomenon, it’s something Sapiens have always done. When we developed our massive brain, we came up with new and creative ways to dominate and control our environments and these were often destructive and to the detriment of all other forms of life. We learnt to survive. We learnt to thrive. But the price was paid with the extinction of many other species.

Harari writes that man is so far removed from his natural self. Despite the modern world he lives in, he still has his innate biological drives and instincts (as governed by our genetic makeup) and when these aren’t fulfilled (which they never could be in a metropolis) man becomes depressed and isolated. It’s because we jumped to the top of the food chain and the ecological system was not given time to adjust and neither was man’s biology. These things normally take a millennium, not a few centuries. We still have the same bodies (and instincts) of our ancient kin and it does not meet the environment we live in.

This occurred because of three major revolutions in human history. The first was the cognitive revolution which allowed for the creation of language, effectively setting us above all other forms of life in terms of intelligence. The second was the agricultural revolution, which allowed us to harvest the earth and control it to meet our dietary needs. The third was the scientific revolution, which allowed us to take the first steps in understanding life and the universe and use the discoveries to benefit humankind and industry. Harari narrates all these monumental events with much detail, though because of the nature of the book he does fall into generalisations, but I didn't mind too much. There were also quite a few funny comments to offset it:

“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”

And through this he also raises many questions. What would have happened if the other species of human had survived? Would we be at harmony? What religions, science and art could the other species of human’s developed had they the opportunity to flourish like we did? These are such interesting questions, and ripe material for a science fiction novel exploring such ideas. I’m sure someone has written one about it somewhere.

So this was a great read, full of interesting facts and ideas, with the potential to change how you view the human race and its history.

_________________________________

You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________ ...more

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Jul 09, 2016 Petra-X Off having adventures rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-read, popculture-anthropology, history, 2016-150-reviews, reviewed

The book was too much a basic primer for me, at least to start with, but that's probably because I've read too many books on our origins biologically and culturally. Once the author had us settled into the civilization of cities he waxed romantically (as authors on this subject quite often do) on the life of the hunter gatherer and its perfection. (I've just finished Sebastian Junger's Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging and there was more of that.) If it was all so perfect then more of us would The book was too much a basic primer for me, at least to start with, but that's probably because I've read too many books on our origins biologically and culturally. Once the author had us settled into the civilization of cities he waxed romantically (as authors on this subject quite often do) on the life of the hunter gatherer and its perfection. (I've just finished Sebastian Junger's Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging and there was more of that.) If it was all so perfect then more of us would return to that ancient life style where people had more leisure, freedom and happiness according to Harari and Junger, neither of whom have given up their miserable materialistic lives for stalking around with a spear.

The book got better. There were some good explanations of why we are as we are and how things developed, Such as human conversation evolving (see below) so we could gossip about our fellow tribes people. I didn't always agree with the author. But I always enjoy books like that to some extent because it gives me a different point of view, different reasons and things to think about. So this was good.

But then it dragged at the end as the author got preachy and scifi technological about our bionic futures. At some time not in the unimaginable future, robots will think for themselves and be able to feel, and then they will supercede us... Yes well Asimov covered all that more than half a century ago. It's not going to happen we are too complex to duplicate. And anyway I can't see robots gossiping and if they don't do that what have they got to talk about (view spoiler) that will make them 'human'? If the desire to gossip gave us speech, then the inability to gossip puts us right back into the pre-sapiens world. Robots are retrogression. Bionic bodies though, that might be progress.
_________

Written on reading the book. According to the author, basic vocal communication was solved by the primates. And although animals aren't supposed to have theory of mind, green monkeys have been heard calling 'beware there's a lion' when there's no such thing, they just don't want to risk losing or having to share food they've just found.

Human conversation apparently evolved so we could gossip. As a social animal, we need to know whose screwing who, who ripped off who, and who lives in a really disgusting midden. Maybe the author's right. He also says that we are not a tolerant species. He got that right for true. ...more

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Jun 29, 2019 Petrik rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Petrik by: Captain America

Chris Evans highly recommended this book. When Captain America says so, you listen.

It’s been almost three years since I joined Goodreads and this is literally the second non-fiction book I finished reading. The last time I read a non-fiction book was in December 2016, it was an autobiography titled In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park. Anyone who knows my reading taste should know that I don’t read non-fiction, not only I found the majority of them to be boring, the main reason behind why I read is e ...more

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Feb 28, 2015 Andy rated it liked it · review of another edition

The only parts of this book that really grabbed my attention were the chapters on early humankind, and especially the interaction between Homo Sapiens and other Homo species. The rest of it is a very pedestrian and basic journey through some aspects of human history, with the author making a lot of sweeping assertions and tending towards a rather vague and disembodied explanation of things like culture, money, etc. These sort of general explanations might be good for someone new to the study of ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 Manny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-and-biography, linguistics-and-philosophy, science

- Pssst! Eve!

- Who's there?

- A friend.

- What kind of friend? Come on out, don't be shy.

- I'm not Shai-

- You are.

- I'm not. Who told you that?

- I just figured it out myself. Oh, there you are. What are you doing curled round that branch?

- Waiting for a chance to talk to you, Eve. So tell me, where are you going today?

- I'm gathering. See, Adam and me are hunter-gatherers and we take turns. Today he's hunting and I'm gathering. He's going to catch a rabbit, and I'm going to find mushrooms and wil ...more

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May 05, 2015 Tanja Berg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, non-fiction, all-time-favourites, ecology, science

Rating 5* out of 5. This is one of those rare books which is superbly written, intelligent and mind-altering. I am convinced by this author's arguments and my view of the human condition has changed permanently.

I thought this would be a book that would delve lavishly in later human evolution, but it is does not. It discusses it briefly and moves on, concentrating its effort on the times of agricultural revolution and forward. It is a masterpiece of anthropology.

"Ever since the Cognitive Revolu Rating 5* out of 5. This is one of those rare books which is superbly written, intelligent and mind-altering. I am convinced by this author's arguments and my view of the human condition has changed permanently.

I thought this would be a book that would delve lavishly in later human evolution, but it is does not. It discusses it briefly and moves on, concentrating its effort on the times of agricultural revolution and forward. It is a masterpiece of anthropology.

"Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. One the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As times went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as United States and Google."

"Unlike lying, an imagined reality is something that everyone believes in, and as long as this communal belief persits, the imagined reality exerts force in the world. [...] Most millionaires sincerely believe in the existence of money and limited liability of companies. Most human-rights activists sincerely believe in the existence of human rights."

I have never considered the extent of the imagined reality we all live in before. I have never equated my belief in human rights with the belief in Vishnu, or considered that a corporation too is all in our collective heads.

The author moves on through history and gives plenty of new perspectives on events.

"Most people today successfully live up to the capitalist-consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on the condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money, and that the masses give free rein to their cravings and passions - and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How, though, do we know that we'll get paradise in return? We've seen it on television."

These are just a few tidbits of insight and perspective. I absolutely loved this book! Highly recommended to anyone curious about the human condition. ...more

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Dec 10, 2020 Tharindu Dissanayake rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, favorites-non-fiction

"what looks inevitable in hindsight was far from obvious at the time."

"Presumably, everyone reading this book is a Homo sapiens - the species sapiens (wise) of the genus Homo (man)."

We 'sapiens' have diverse tastes when it comes to everything, so same goes for reading, and there are oh-so many options: many sub-genre's of fiction and non-fiction. We usually pick the one we enjoy the most - and that's fiction most of the time - and stick with it for good. But every now and then, there is that boo ...more

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Nov 17, 2018 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hahahahahaaarrrrrgh, nonfiction

"Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?"

Now, that is a mean cliffhanger on page 466!

I am so done with Sapiens, I am willing to enter the realm of posthuman Homo Deus out of spite for my species. During the time it took me to read the "short" history of humankind, written in funny sarcastic prose, painting with broad brush strokes what made us develop into this bizarre population of 7 billion people, I have rated this brick of a "Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?"

Now, that is a mean cliffhanger on page 466!

I am so done with Sapiens, I am willing to enter the realm of posthuman Homo Deus out of spite for my species. During the time it took me to read the "short" history of humankind, written in funny sarcastic prose, painting with broad brush strokes what made us develop into this bizarre population of 7 billion people, I have rated this brick of a book five stars, one star, no star, all the fault in our stars. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, though. I am as surprised as I can be that my fingers eventually ended up choosing four of them to head my review. It must mean that my serotonin levels are particularly high today.

Let's be honest. There are difficulties in this book. And there's no surprise there, as it is written by a homo sapiens, a species notoriously wellknown for making false assumptions and creating individual and collective fictions to survive, adapt and conquer the world. The author, who specialises in world history according to the oxymoronic blurb (what is his GENERAL field then, I would like to ask?), sells his narrative as a factual account a bit too often for me to enjoy it fully. I felt myself tending towards one star while reading the superficial analysis of empires, for example. I kept asking myself what the preferred audience for this book is, as it is clearly too difficult to read for people who are not interested in history, and too shallow for those who are. I was building up a real emotional rage (my serotonin levels were bad between pages 200-350!).

BUT!

This books keeps people in my environment talking, discussing, reflecting. And that is a good thing, I believe. As long as homo sapiens tries to acquire more sapientia, the world becomes more serene according to my worldview, aka imagination. I like Harari's premise, that the ability to create collective fictions and use them as guidelines for our shared communities defines us as a species.

And part of my irritation derived from the fact that he is excellent at demonstrating the human narrative skill in his book. I felt his story took over, and interferred with mine. I have a different idea of the Agricultural Revolution. So I can get into a rage when reading his? I am confirming his premise by doing so.

My annoyance with his easygoing, dismissive style is at the same time what kept me reading - he is like the laughing philosopher who despairs of the world and decides that all is a joke, while I most of the time take the position of the crying philosopher who wants to change humankind for the better. Harari does for homo sapiens what Hitchens did for gods. He puts them in their place.

This book has its place in the meaningless, yet amusing narrative of a bunch of mammals whose best and worst skill is storytelling.

Be warned, but read it! ...more

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Mar 16, 2016 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to David by: Arun Divakar

Shelves: anthropology, psychology, sociology, archaeology, evolution, economics, religion

This is an excellent book about the history of humans, covering all aspects; evolution, anthropology, geography, psychology, religion, ideologies, and the future of humans. Physically, the book is beautiful; the glossy paper makes it heavy as well. What really makes the book interesting is the unique points of view that the author, Yuval Harari, brings to life.

For example, early in the book, Harari mentions that chimps and sapiens (humans) can only organize in groups of up to 150, without organi This is an excellent book about the history of humans, covering all aspects; evolution, anthropology, geography, psychology, religion, ideologies, and the future of humans. Physically, the book is beautiful; the glossy paper makes it heavy as well. What really makes the book interesting is the unique points of view that the author, Yuval Harari, brings to life.

For example, early in the book, Harari mentions that chimps and sapiens (humans) can only organize in groups of up to 150, without organizing into a hierarchical structure. So, how did cities grow to their enormous size? Through fiction. Yes, that's right, through fiction, through beliefs in common myths. These are myths about ideologies. These imaginary fictions include human rights, nations, and currency; they work because many people cooperatively believe in them.

Some civilizations are built quite differently from our own. For example, the Bari Indians believe that genes do not come from a single pair of parents, but that they are contributed by multiple fathers. Monogamous relationships do not exist among their tribes. Harari discusses a number of controversial theories about nuclear families and monogamous relationships. One theory states that infidelities and divorce of modern times stem from forcing people to live in unnatural, permanent relationships. Another theory holds that monogamy and nuclear families are core human behaviors.

Harari describes the disappearance of many animal species in certain habitats that are coincidental in time with the arrival of humans. For example, Australia lost 23 of 24 large animal species at about the same time that humans migrated there. Many other islands were also rich in large mammals until humans arrived.

Harari discusses the agricultural revolution in some detail. He addresses the question why agriculture became important in the Middle East, Central America, and China, but did not become popular in Australia, Alaska, or South Africa. He explains that most plants and animals cannot be domesticated, and that regions where there is a deficit in domesticatable plants and animals did not develop agriculture.

It is obvious that Harari laments the rise of agriculture. He claims that hunter gatherers, who roamed the lands and did not stick to one location like agriculturists, were more stimulated, less in danger of starvation and disease. Their diets were more varied. Agriculture increased the volume of food, but not better quality of food, and did not yield more leisure-time. Agriculture created population explosions and pampered elites. In fact, Harari claims that the agricultural revolution is "history's biggest fraud." The culprits of this fraud were wheat, rice, and potatoes, all plants that domesticated humans! Also, farming encouraged warfare, because it forced people to fight to protect territory. And agriculture, because it developed over millennia (not overnight), created consequences gradually. People could not anticipate the full consequences of their decisions. More wheat helped to lead to more children, and less food for each.

Harari compares the Code of Hammurabi with the American Declaration of Independence. Hammurabi's code implicitly acknowledges three classes; superiors, commoners, and slaves. The Declaration of Independence states that all men were created equally. But Harari disputes this; he states that men were not created at all, but instead they evolved differently.

From a sociological point of view, Harari asks why are most cities patriarchical. It is not because men are stronger. Physical prowess is inversely proportional to social power in most societies. He explores various theories, but none of them are very compelling.

Since the French Revolution, political history is a series of attempts to reconcile liberty--which involves individual freedom--and equality. In order to understand another culture, one should look at the "Catch 22's", that is, look where rules and standards contradict each other. These contradictions are part of culture. For example, in Medieval Europe, there was a clash between Christianity and chivalry. In modern Western civilization, there are clashes between equality and liberty.

I have just scratched the surface of this big book. I will leave you with one more unique point of view expressed in this book. Harari calls the present modern age the "Age of Ignorance." I won't explain this; it would be a spoiler. This book is a wonderful introduction to sociology, and I highly recommend it to all. ...more

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Oct 25, 2016 Simon Clark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Fantastic. Absolutely sublime. I don't think I've ever read a book with such grand scope, or a book that promises to cover so much and actually delivers. Dealing with the biggest questions about our species - Why are we here? Why are we the way we are? What does our happiness mean? - Harari writes precisely and with shrewd use of metaphor, providing answers that seem intuitively right but leading us to think further than we have before. The links between giant forces that control our world such ...more

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Aug 21, 2020 Dr. Appu Sasidharan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

(TR)- This book is simply outstanding, and I can indubitably say that this is the best non-fiction book I read this year.

- This book discusses the whole of Human History. These are some interesting excerpts from it - “Not all people get the same chance to cultivate and refine their abilities, whether or not they have such an opportunity will usually depend on their place within their societies remained hierarchy.

- Harry Potter is a good example. Removed from his distinguished family and bro ...more

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Nov 26, 2018 Dana Ilie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Nothing new! Everything I read in this book to some extent I learned at the anthropology courses taught by academician Balaceanu-Stolnici.

Harari is a good writer, but one with a very decided agenda. I had to point out how surprisingly little he seems to have read on quite a number of essential topics.

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Mar 10, 2017 Darwin8u rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

"The ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language...fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively."
-- Yuval Noah Harari , Sapiens

description

The writing style reminds me a bit of Bob Wright's The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, or Sagan's Cosmos. It is obviously a book directed at non-academics interested in 'Big History'.

If I ...more

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Jul 29, 2019 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science, anthropology, history, israel, philosophy, 21th-century, non-fiction

קיצור תולדות האנושות = Ḳitsur Toldot ha-Enoshut = Sapiens : A Brief Bistory of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book by Yuval Noah Harari first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011, and in English in 2014. The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. The account is situated within a framework provided by the natural sciences, particularly evol קיצור תולדות האנושות = Ḳitsur Toldot ha-Enoshut = Sapiens : A Brief Bistory of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a book by Yuval Noah Harari first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011, and in English in 2014. The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. The account is situated within a framework provided by the natural sciences, particularly evolutionary biology. Harari's work situates its account of human history within a framework provided by the natural sciences, particularly evolutionary biology: he sees biology as setting the limits of possibility for human activity, and sees culture as shaping what happens within those bounds. The academic discipline of history is the account of cultural change. Harari surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. He divides the history of Sapiens into four major parts:
The Cognitive Revolution (c. 70,000 BCE, when Sapiens evolved imagination).
The Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000 BCE, the development of agriculture).
The unification of humankind (the gradual consolidation of human political organisations towards one global empire).
The Scientific Revolution (c. 1500 CE, the emergence of objective science).
....
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه جولای سال 2019 میلادی
عنوان: انسان خردمند: تاریخ مختصر بشر؛ نویسنده: یووال نوح حراری (هاراری)؛ مترجم: نیک گرگین؛ تهران، فرهنگ نشر نو؛ چاپ اول تا ششم 1396؛ در 621 ص؛ شابک: 9786008547037؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، فرهنگ نشر نو: آسیم؛ چاپ هفتم و دوازدهم 1397؛ عنوان دیگر: تاریخ مختصر بشر؛ موضوع: تمدن و انسان و تاریخ؛ تکنولوزی و تمدن، از نویسندگان اسرائیلی - سده 21 م
صد هزار سال پیش، دست‌کم شش گونۀ انسانی بر روی زمین زندگی می‌کردند. امروز تنها یکی به‌جا مانده است: ما، انسان‌های خردمند. چطور گونۀ ما در نبرد برای سلطه بر دیگران پیروز شد؟ چرا نیاکانِ شکارگر – خوراک‌ جوی ما اقدام به ساختن شهرها و برپایی پادشاهی‌ها کردند؟ چگونه به خدایان و ملت‌ها و حقوق بشر ایمان آوردیم، به پول و کتاب‌ها و قوانین اعتماد کردیم، و خود را برده ی بوروکراسی و مصرف‌ گرایی و حرص و آز برای خوشبختی ساختیم؟ دنیای ما در هزاره ی آینده چه شکلی به خود خواهد گرفت؟ انسان خردمند به‌ گونه‌ ای جسورانه، همه‌ جانبه و بحث‌ برانگیز هر آنچه را تا کنون گمان می‌کردیم در مورد انسان می‌دانیم: افکارمان، رفتارمان، اعمال‌مان، اقتدارمان… و آینده‌ مان را، به چالش می‌کشد. از همگی‌مان با هر ایمان و باوری می‌خواهند که روایتهای زیربنایی جهان را زیر پرسش ببریم، پیشرفت‌های گذشته را با دلمشغولی‌های کنونی مرتبط کنیم، و از نتایج جدل‌ برانگیز آن نهراسیم. دکتر «یووال نوح حراری» از دانشگاه «آکسفورد» دکترای تاریخ دارند، و در دانشگاه «بیت‌ المقدس»، تاریخ جهان تدریس می‌کنند. موضوع اصلی این پژوهش ایشان پرسشهای صریحی است، همچون: رابطۀ تاریخ و زیست‌ شناسی چیست؟ آیا عدالتی در تاریخ یافت می‌شود؟ آیا در مسیر تاریخ مردمان سعادتمندتر شده‌ اند؟ شصت و پنج هزار تن، در دورۀ اینترنتی تدریس تاریخ مختصر بشر ایشان، ثبت‌ نام کرده‌ اند. ا. شربیانی ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Trevor rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, history, race, social-theory

A friend of mine at work recommended I read this during the week – and it is hard not being struck by the odd coincidence of that. Not so much him recommending a book to me, he’s done that before, but this book is very similar to The Patterning Instinct and I only read that a week or so ago. And that’s odd too, since it is years since I’ve read a book on this theme, despite it being a bit of a favourite at one time. So, reading two books on much the same topic, covering lots and lots of the same A friend of mine at work recommended I read this during the week – and it is hard not being struck by the odd coincidence of that. Not so much him recommending a book to me, he’s done that before, but this book is very similar to The Patterning Instinct and I only read that a week or so ago. And that’s odd too, since it is years since I’ve read a book on this theme, despite it being a bit of a favourite at one time. So, reading two books on much the same topic, covering lots and lots of the same ground, and in quick succession, recommended by completely different sources all seems strange to me.

If you are tossing up whether or not to read this one, I would probably recommend reading The Patterning Instinct instead. Not least because, I think it covers the non-Western philosophies and spiritual traditions it discusses much more on their own terms than this one does. It also covers them in ways that make you feel, even though the Patterning’s author provided merely a thumbnail sketch of each, that it is a sketch of the philosophy itself. This one made me feel I was being presented an ‘example’ rather than a ‘sketch’ – with the history of humans being presented much more as a kind of story that leads to us in the West as the culmination. That is, I came away from tins one thinking of Said’s Orientalism, feeling that this was a white guy explaining other-people’s-cultures – which might even have been true of the patterning book too, but that one felt more inclusive. I want to say ‘objective’ but that’s probably not the right word.

The patterning book was, even in its title, a bit of a dig at Pinker – whereas, this one pays him homage repeatedly throughout. And that is interesting here, since we are seeing essentially the same ‘data’ being used to justify significantly different conclusions in the two books. So, in that sense, I really didn’t come away from reading these two books in quick succession feeling it was a waste of time. I do understand that you might not want to read both of them together – although, I feel like I’ve read them in the way that an ex-Australian Prime Minister used to collect various conductors’ interpretations of Mahler Symphonies. The benefit of reading both has been that I got to see ‘evidence’ from the past, even when it is pretty much the exact same evidence, being used to justify significantly different conclusions.

Obviously enough, I would recommend the Patterning book because it more closely corresponds with my prejudices – something that would be hardly surprising, I guess. But that said, I would also recommend it because I think it presents the material in more depth and in ways that are likely to provide you (and maybe even provoke you) with more insight into the complexities of the material too. The author of that one remains clear and accessible, despite the complexities of the material presented – something this one is too, by the way, it just I didn’t quite feel this one was as comprehensive – so the clarity here was also a function of the simpler presentation of the material.

I found a lot of the last of this to be – well, a bit too Pinker for my tastes as well. This happened a couple of times throughout – for instance, there is a bit early on where he discusses males and aggression and their hormones and the genetic selection that encouraged it, and so on – and since I have just finished reading Fine’s T-Rex book on all this, that section proved a bit of a cringe.

The bits at the end where science is proposed as being about to swoop down and save the day (and look, I know I’ve making a bit of a strawman of his argument here, but too not much of a strawman) left me cold, to be honest. My problem with the promise that ‘human ingenuity will triumph in the end’ is that, well, maybe it will, but betting the house on something that simply can’t be a sure thing seems a little reckless to me. Particularly when all life on earth might be wagered on the other side of the bet. I’m not much of a betting man, so perhaps I’m too cautious. But then, maybe we should be a little more cautious with this kind of gamble, even if we end up laughing at how overly cautious proved to be while we are looking back from the glorious future that is always promised us. It’s just that some scientists believe that if global warming proves to be as bad as they think it is going to be, the total population of people on the planet could end up being about half a billion people – which means that about 7 billion people will be in excess to requirements and so will have to die one way or another.

Bits of this were really very good – I’m definitely not saying ‘don’t read this book under any circumstances’ – not in the least, but if you’ve read neither of these two books and only plan to read one – read the other one.
...more

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Sep 19, 2014 ·Karen· rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, history, best-of-2014

Beginner's guide to sociobiology.
And since I am a complete beginner, perfect for me.

I finished this some six months ago: interesting to see what has remained: gossip, something I hate and rarely indulge in, is an important factor in creating social cohesion, (so perhaps I should revise my attitude to it). True, when you think about it: you and I can only gossip about someone we both know. And it might be important to know who is forming an alliance behind our back. However, as social glue, goss ...more

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Feb 03, 2015 Ranjeev Dubey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Every once in a decade, a book comes along that has the capacity to radically change the way we think about matters of substance. This book is one of them.

It asks fundamental questions about our evolution as humans and offers counter intuitive, tangential viewpoints. It tests our thinking, provokes new trains of thought.

The book is highly readable and an immense provocation. It must be read, whether or not you are particularly interested in mankind, its history, its evolution or its future. I ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of Otis and Abby's top reads. ...more

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Jun 07, 2020 Leonard Gaya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Sapiens is based on a series of lectures Harari gave in Jerusalem in the early 2010s, and it reads in fact like a bunch of TED Talks bundled together. The author (a historian specialised in medieval crusades, to begin with) sounds well versed in all sorts of disciplines: palaeontology, anthropology, history, economics and social sciences and a bit of philosophy to boot. And Sapiens is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Don’t get me wrong, though: all these bits are sewed together alm ...more

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About Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari

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Professor Harari was born in Haifa, Israel, to Lebanese parents in 1976. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2002, and is now a lecturer at the Department of History, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He specialized in World History, medieval history and military history. His current research focuses on macro-historical questions: What is the relation between history and biolo ...more

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