Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As a person who walked away from religion as an explanation for reality a couple of decades ago, and one who has been trying to makes sense of things since, I found Sapiens delightful. I categorize it in a new kind of genre I'm seeing that brings broadly diverse fields together. It's a kind of mini Theory of Everything. From human biology/evolution to sociology/anthropology, to religion, to economics and more.

Moving chronologically through the history of Homo Sapiens from the time there were several other human species to our approaching dystopia, Harari puts it all together and offers very plausible theories of the individual and collective inner workings of humans that have made it all happen.

He proposes that a key fork in the road that sent humans off into a far different reality than all other animal species was the ability of our brains to create and comprehend abstract ideas, which allows us to organize ourselves into groups of far greater numbers than the most intelligent of non-human animals. From this ability small tribes became large tribes which then combined to become empires.

Among the abstract ideas that became the focal points of organizing, he proposes that the most powerful of all is money because it has brought the entire world into agreement (about the value of things) far more efficiently than even the all powerful gods of the great world religions have been able to bring humans together.

He organizes human history into four eras separated by revolutions - cognitive, agricultural, unification, and scientific, explaining how human accomplishments from prior eras led to each revolution.

Surprisingly, the 400+ page book held my interest throughout - I never drifted off. And Sapiens is written so the average person can read it, so academics might find it a bit simplistic.

In a time when we have so many specialists writing non-fiction about their specialties and sub-specialties using language that only fellow specialists can grasp, Sapiens is a breath of fresh air by synthesizing the entirety of human history into a single, readable volume. Highly recommend.





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