Tadas Antanavicius's Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

An instant classic. I'd never appreciated a history book until I read this one, and it has me hungry for more. The way Harari crafts our current knowledge of the history of the world, interwoven with the implications it has on the modern world, is endlessly captivating. He does a fantastic job providing objective (inasmuch as that is possible) observations and commentary that prompt the reader to dwell and think hard about what s/he is learning. Every chapter resulted in some mindblowing nugget of information that has the potential to shift how you see the world and what you value.

Above all, Sapiens did an excellent job of reminding me how little we truly know about the world. Much like the classic thought-exercise of "imagine you are a tiny dot... in your city... in your country... in the solar system... you are inconsequential" -- that can be extended to our belief systems as well. Our existence on this earth - nay, the existence of our species on this earth - is such a tiny speck in world history. How do we *know* that human beings deserve superior (human) rights to other animals? Are technological improvements really better for human life satisfaction, or was the world a better place in the caveman-days? How can a Republican or a Democrat be so utterly convinced in his or her belief system for the human race to the point of truly, wholeheartedly believing that someone else should be torn down for believing otherwise?

I'm not saying it can't be fulfilling to seek answers to these questions - but it's useful to remember that nobody really has this all figured out.