About the book

4.4/5.0

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.

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Year:

2011

Language:

English

Publisher:

Harvill Secker

Pages:

498

Reviews

Colin Hively

1 month ago

9

Awesome read, perspective shifting!

Beatriz Marañon Straarup

3 months ago

9

Definitely get the hype

1 Comment

Nanna Schmidt

3 months ago

10

Læste den som en del af pensum på antropologi, og den er virkelig spændende og tankevækkende. Den kan klart anbefales - også som “fritidslæsning”!

Tyler Heywood

5 months ago

8

Sometimes can be misleading in terms of facts but a great read and very eye opening regardless

Kristian Nolting

5 months ago

8

Gray book until Yuval tries to predict the future.

Markus Marañon Straarup

6 months ago

9

A truly enlightening review of what makes us human, how strong and simultaneously weak our social constructs are, and what the future - may - hold. In short a reality check on our human reality.

Paula Celestino

8 months ago

10

Fantastic

Kevin Maloney

12 months ago

10

Superb retelling of human history.

Morten V Schroeder

1 year ago

9

This book is incredible, enlightening, very well-written but also frightening and disturbing. It takes it’s origin at the beginning of human kind, which puts our existence into a really interesting perspective. Just 70k years ago humans were a species minding their own business somewhere in Africa. Today we are gods of the earth threatening it’s entire existence! It relies heavily on seemingly tiny historical events or societal phenomena to explain the future development of our world which I found really fascinating. E.g. why did European nations develop into super powers who ruled most of the world for centuries, when 500 years ago they were completely even with Asia? The author doesn’t always take a stand and does a great job of presenting competing theories! The only critique I have - and hence the 9 - is that I find that he tries to explain too many things and spans across too much material. The concluding chapters on where human genetic research is taking us is extremely fascinating but feels like he could have written an entirely different book about that. Instead I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the information from Neanderthal history to future Cyborg world! But highly recommended!

7 Comments

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

9.1 Everyone