Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Paperback – 15 May 2018

Sapiens was absolutely mind-blowing! This is the kind of book that makes you look at everything differently, and I couldn't put it down once I started. Harari takes such a complex subject – the entire history of humankind – and makes it digestible and engaging, blending science, history, and philosophy effortlessly. I loved how he explored the evolution of human societies and the fundamental questions of how we got to where we are today. It made me reflect so much on how we live and why we do the things we do. Some parts were a little dense, but overall, it’s a brilliant read that really makes you question everything. I’m so glad I picked this up — absolutely deserved every bit of that five-star rating!

The feeling you have, in the course of reading the book, is that an author of high intellect views from a high vantage point, the unfolding drama of human history with singular clarity. You are impressed with the erudition of the author which extends beyond historical facts and human history to what it means to be human and to diverse fields such as anthropology, genetics, evolution, ecology, behavior, culture, economics, and science in general. The author is endowed with a deep insight but his most impressive trait is the originality of his mind. In this regard, he presents two human traits, emanating from the capacity of abstract thinking namely myth making and imaginary reality. As examples of myth making, the author cites religion, ideology, and nationalism. The merit of these myths is that they expanded the capacity of human beings of associating and belonging from small numbered bands to thousands and eventually millions. The negative side is that humans believe in these myths to the extent that there are religious wars and ethnic cleansing. As an example of imaginary reality, the author cites the corporation of limited liability which made possible production and trade. Finally he mentions the creation of money which is rendered possible through trust.The book covers a huge time span, from the appearance of Homo sapiens 70,000 years ago to the 21st century. The author was able to accommodate this huge period of human history in four hundred pages due to his discriminating ability for the essential.The characteristics that endowed Homo sapiens with huge advantages were his large brain, abstract thinking, superior learning abilities, language and communication, the use of tools, and complex social structures.For many millennia following their exodus from Africa, humans existed as hunters-gatherers.The invention of Agriculture occurred 10,000 years ago. Agriculture resulted in sedentary life, accumulation of food surpluses, creation of cities, stratification of society, with bureaucracy, army, priesthood, nobility, kings and the creation of empires. Credit and detailed accounts led initially to the discovery of partial script confined to Arithmetic such as the Sumerian script in Mesopotamia. Eventually full script was invented for the writing of text such as the Cuneiform in Mesopotamia and hieroglyphics in Egypt.The next landmark in human history took place five hundred years ago with the scientific revolution.The scientific revolution was followed two hundred years ago by the industrial revolution which in combination with energy and capital resulted in unprecedented growth, wealth accumulation - albeit unequally - and population explosion. Industrialization was intimately connected with Imperialism and the colonization of a large part of the globe by the European powers during the nineteenth century.The industrial growth by the end of the twentieth century along with the uncritical subjugation of the planet led to very serious ecological degradation posing a danger for the very survival of the human species.Finally, in the early twenty-first century with the rapid development of genetic engineering, we are witnessing the transition from the Darwinian evolution to 'intelligent design' with the human animal playing the role of god.

After reading this book and then reading many of the reviews below I am astounded that so many reviewers have only used less than 50 words! This book covers hundreds of topics and comments on a vast amount of subjects - so just to say the book was good/excellent doesn't mean anything - what points did these people appreciate and were there any points you were uncertain about or disagreed with or thought wrong. Believing everything you read is both dangerous and foolish (especially in this day and age) and we should know better e.g. awareness of fake news/information. Although I enjoyed reading the book because of it's thought provoking questions and analysis of our history as well as the fact that Harari has made the book very accessible through his easy to read style - I did see that his liberal, political correct stance had flaws that should have been obvious to most readers (even if you don't possess any knowledge in the areas covered by the author). The fact that in the first part of the book Harari refers negatively about scientists and archaeologists speculating on the basis of findings and that they will probably never know if these speculations are true - this is fine - but later on he uses many of his own & other scientists speculations to make his own points. Harari gets us to see through his liberal eyes that if something is biologically possible in nature e.g. a woman can easily do a mans job or gay men can have successful relationships etc then why are some groups of humans opposed to it? This is great argumentation (I am all for equal rights) but push that argument further - that it is biologically possible to have incest, and have sex with under age people and animals - but which of us would openly say that we should consider these aspects of man made restrictions as permissible? (not me for one!). The book also contains factual errors - I will only point out two of those that I noticed to illustrate the point - when an author has chosen to write about an enormous theme such as a History of Humankind - they will inevitably incorporate errors in their research - because they will not check to see if every point they have read about is true or just an assumption by the author/speaker.Page 247 towards the bottom of the page the author talks about dualistic belief of good e.g. God and bad e.g. Satan/Devil - then the author uses one of his many assumptions (sometimes witty sometimes incorrect) - "How can a monotheist adhere to such a dualistic belief (which by the way, is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament)?". This is incorrect and he should review the story of Job - wherein God (acting in a very haughty and not considerate way) allows Satan/Devil to prove that if Job didn't have such blessings (wealth) he wouldn't be as devote or devote at all to God. So God allows Satan to test Job with only one proviso that he cannot kill him. Satan tests Job by not only taking his wealth, but also killing off his wife, children, servants, slaves, and finally giving him leprosy - the good God allowed this as it didn't violate the rule and he got to prove his point as Job didn't renounce God and in return God gave him another lot of wealth, a new wife and kids (not a nice of story about God and his ego).Page 299 "In 17th Century England, 150 out of every 1000 newborns died during their first year." This can only ever be a pure guess - many church registers don't survive for this time and those that do rarely give the age of the person being buried - many entries just give the name and nothing else - and what only serious genealogists and maybe some university professors know is that many Vicars simply didn't bother entering burial names for infants or did some in a haphazard fashion.The above points just illustrate we shouldn't believe everything we read! However saying all of the above I was greatly impressed that the author managed to take on this huge theme and put it into one volume that almost everyone can read and understand. I particularly liked him asking unusually questions such as: why did God punished all the animals, birds etc by drowning them in a flood just because mankind had sinned? Why do many of us when trying to imagine what others thought or felt in the past superimpose ourselves in the other person's shoes. Are we as individual's really what we feel e.g. angry or sad or happy? So yes - the book is a great read! excellent! as many reviewers have said in their very succinct way - however, the author does include some incorrect facts and sometimes falls into the same trap that he criticises others of - namely theorising and making assumptions (which everyone does of course). I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to know a general liberal view of mankind's history - although I doubt if many readers will be able to remember many points of the hundreds that he uses if any at all (within a week or two of reading the book). As this is a Brief History of a vast topic - he doesn't cover anything in-depth - so this will probably suite many of those people from the Pancake Generation (who like their knowledge base to increase in as many subjects as possible but certainly not to any depth thank you very much). I would give the book 8.5 out of 10.

Excellent book, everyone should read it at least once. You will have so many ‘aha’ moments.