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Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
Harper, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-231609-7 |
Much in the vein of Jared Diamond, and his treatises focusing on the history, geography and evolution of human societies, Yuval Noah Harari produces an enjoyable and highly readable summary of the history of modern humans (Homo sapiens to be exact). Given the sheer breadth of the topic, and limited space to cover the relevant material (416 pages in this edition), readers should expect a somewhat superficial exploration of the subject matter. Indeed, readers will be left with many unanswered questions, but this is actually a good thing as they will be equally incentivized to do the extra research to gain more insight in a wealth of topics.
The overall thesis of the book is that humans as a species are inexorably becoming more unified, and the author explains that this has occurred through a series of revolutions (cognitive, agricultural and scientific) and buttressed by collective social myths (money, empire and religion). I particularly appreciate the author’s well balanced and unbiased approach, where he discusses the good, the bad and the ugly sides of humanity without making any judgments, and making sure to use examples from a variety of human cultures across space and time. My only critique worth noting is the significant dearth of references, which is somewhat alarming for a book that like it or not, covers “everything”.
