Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

This was one of the more enjoyable books I have read in quite some time! It is very well paced,concise and thought provoking. As it was,written 10 years ago,some of the premises are discernable in the present day. It made me a,little uncomfortable in its Summation but also instilled the idea that although we are often on the cusp as a species, we have also made astounding leaps in our development that have mostly improved our lot. That was my,take away...but as the book points out,I may just have an excess of dopamine in my daily life! Great read

This would be a long review. I hope there was enough space for it. I found it a very interesting and provocative book. First, a review of the literary style : the best way to do it is to quote a reviewer (the Times {Ireland} — “Harari can write ••• really, really write, with wit, clarity, elegance, and a wonderful eye for metaphor.”

Second, a review of the substance of the book. Harari was a historian specializing in world history. He had a very good grasp of world history going back not hundreds of years, but thousands of years (millennia). Part of the descriptions of the book went even further to pre-historic times (the domain of archaeologists and anthropologists). Then the description came to the beginning of civilizations in Mesopotamia (and other places) and then to the present day — quite a historical narrative. Besides the historical narrative, he also embedded his own big picture thinking and his big picture ideas upon this narrative (some of which are pretty pretty provocative). Also, he was able to look at present day issues people were concerned about (cultural, social, political) in a perspective of hundreds and thousands of years. That perspective was very interesting and very hard to get.

Third, how did I read the book. I am not a good reader. I don’t read much of anything longer than a newspaper or magazine article. So, my approach to reading the book may not be for everyone, especially those who are good readers. Thus forewarned, here was my approach. I could not read the book like a summer read of a novel. It was just too long and involved too many things. Also, the organization of the book made it hard to read and hard to reference. It was divided into 4 big parts. Each part was divided into several chapters. All together, there were 20 chapters in the book. Now, here came to obscure part. Each chapter was further divided into sections. The sections were not listed on the “Contents” of the book so it was hard to find them. Each section had a title which was a metaphor (the 20 big chapters had titles which to some extent were also metaphors). So, I could not know what I was reading about each section at the beginning. I only understood what the metaphor (title of section) was all about after I had read the section. Because the sections were not listed and the titles of the sections were all metaphors, it was impossible to go back to find something which which I had read and found interesting. I went around this by going to the index to find the page number of the thing I was interested in. By the way, the index was very good. Also, the images (the photos, drawings, diagrams) were carefully selected and carefully placed in the right place in the book to help in understanding the material of the book. So, for me (at least), it was not summer reading, it was a big project to read the book and to understood it completely. I did not read it from the beginning to the end. I only read a section (of a chapter) I might be interested in in one sitting. Then, section by section in some random order, I completely read the book and understood the historical narrative and understood Harari’s big picture thinkings and big picture ideas embedded in this narrative. I would not review his thinkings and ideas and would leave the readers to form their own judgements. So it was a hell of a book but it was quite hard to read (at least for me). After I finished it, I got the satisfaction of successfully climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. It also gave me knowledge of world history, and may be wisdom.

High level, thought-provoking ideas, lucid exposition, engaging language, and interesting examples. I would recommend this book to ANYONE.

In addition to reading, I also listened to the audiobook narrated by Derek Perkins - also highly recommended.

The book focuses on "big" history, i.e., macroscopic historical patterns and principles, rather than individual or microscopic historical events and processes. Examples include the three major unification forces of human cultures (money, empires and religions) and the interactions between science, imperialism and capitalism that buttress Western empires' dominion since 1750. Each chapter is organized around these themes, rather than around individual historical regions, eras or institutions (eg, empires and religions) which seems to be the approach of most traditional history textbooks or even university curricula (as judged from for example the course offerings in the History Department of my university: https://classes.cornell.edu/browse/roster/FA15/subject/HIST).

[This paragraph contains some personally thoughts only marginally relevant to the book under review; feel free to skip it] Personally, I am utterly enthusiastic about the author’s approach while enormously frustrated about the traditional approach: the traditional approach is like stamp collecting, analogous to providing a long list of mechanical devices without teaching Newton's laws in the case of mechanics, or displaying a wonderful array of organismal diversity without mentioning the unifying principle of evolution in the case of biology, turns people into "scholars" rather than "thinkers" and defeats the overall purpose of our intellectual endeavors. IF there is some element of truth to my impression of history research and education as traditionally practiced having fallen to a lamentable state of stamp collecting, why so? As an outsider of the field I don’t know, and I am speculating that the major reason is we simply don’t know the principles with a level of certainty like that in mechanics or biology, and the minor reason is there is a culture of stamp collecting. In any case, I admire and support the author’s effort which helps to establish the “big history” approach.

Once in a while, the author jumped out of any historical context altogether and provided some sweeping accounts on some central questions of history whose relevance holds for history as a whole. Examples include justice in history (Chapter 8), the arrow of history (Chapter 9) and the secret of cultural success (Chapter 13). My personal favorite on this is the chapter on happiness (Chapter 19), which examines the following question: are we getting happier as history rolls along and our power accumulates? By the end of an informative and thought-provoking discussion, the author claimed that the subject has traditionally been shunned by historians despite its central importance and he was trying to fill the gap; I personally believe the claim and think it attests to the author’s courage and intellectual prowess.

Staying at the “big history” level, the book contains many thought-provoking ideas. Examples include the point of studying history is not to make predictions but to understand the vast possibilities of our future (in Chapter 13), and we Homo sapiens about to turn into superhumans (in Chapter 20). My personal favorite on this is Agricultural Revolution as history’s biggest fraud (Chapter 5) and the nature of human happiness and how to achieve it (Chapter 19). Connected, the two discussions tell me that humans’ choices and actions may sometimes be fundamentally antithetical and counterproductive to their long-term happiness, which holds profound philosophical and ethical implications to me.

The exposition of the book is lucid and the flow natural. To supplement and concretize the discussions on macroscopic principles, the author provided many detailed (microscopic) examples, and here he exhibited great skills in zooming in and out between the two levels and choosing most telling microscopic examples. Examples fall into several categories. In demonstrating that social orders are of an imagined nature, he carefully chose the CASES of the Code of Hammurabi and the Declaration of Independence, and the result is an informative and intriguing comparison (Chapter 6). In showing that in fact the conquered are usually part of the imperial legacies despite their sometimes great reluctance in admitting so, he drew the STORY of siege of Numantia by the Roman Empire (Chapter 11). In explaining the emergence of credit, he concocted a TALE of the fictional characters McDoughnut, Stone and Greedy (Chapter 16). Moreover, the book is scattered with examples down to the more vivid and explicit level, such as a mathematical equation of Relativity to exemplify our mathematical cognition (Chapter 7) and an ingredient list of a hand cream to illustrate the modern industrial sophistication (Chapter 17).

Occasionally for some difficult topics in the book it seems a clearer exposition would make it easier for me to understand the author’s argument (eg, on how language enabled us to enjoy competitive advantage over other Homo species and ultimately drive them to extinction (Chapter 2), and the sequence of events that got us trapped in agriculture (Chapter 5)), but having not thoroughly gone through those difficult parts a few times, I understand that it might actually be my understanding deficiency. Moreover, I am aware of some complaints over the potential handwaviness of some of the author’s arguments as exemplified by his overuse of the phrase “exceptions that prove the rule” (eg, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/11/sapiens-brief-history-humankind-yuval-noah-harari-review). In this my thought is the following: I see an AUTHOR’s primary duty as to provoke readers’ own thinking rather than to produce bulletproof arguments (this secondary duty of an author would be the primary duty of a SCIENTIST); in other words, if the author is writing an academic paper, he might need to tighten up his arguments, and since he is now writing a general history book, I think he has succeeded in his primary duty superbly.

Lastly, I think it is hard to read through the book without noticing its literary appeal. This book is apparently an English translation that the author did himself from the original Hebrew version. The beautiful and idiomatic language adds much to the exhilarating reading experience.

The book affects me nontrivially at a personal level. Aside from the philosophical and ethical implications from history on the relationship between our decisions and long-term happiness as mentioned above, the broad spectrum of social norms described in the book broadens my ethical outlook and makes me less dogmatic about whatever ideas I used to hold as absolute principles and cherish unwaveringly (a positive change I think), echoing the point of studying history which in the author’s opinion is to understand the myriad of possibilities (also mentioned above). I feel sincerely grateful to the author and the book in this. It is in part my wish of extending this positive impact of reading this book and understanding history in general to other people that prompted me to write this review.

I can think of some minor improvements for the book. Aside from the potential refinements on the exposition and argument mentioned above, I think the book can be supplemented with more data and plots of them, to inject a more quantitative sense to the matters under study. Lastly, I think the Table of Contents should also include sections of each chapter, which I think would help us grasp the overall structure of the discourse and I provide below for the convenience of other readers. For example, with a listing of the sections of Chapter 12 on religion, one can easily see that the discussions go from the transition from animism to god-based religions, polytheism, monotheism, dualism, Buddhism and Humanism.

Table of Sections I. The Cognitive Revolution

1. An animal of no significance a. Skeletons in the closest b. The cost of thinking c. A race of cooks d. Our brothers’ keepers
2. The Tree of Knowledge a. The legend of Peugeot b. Bypassing the genome c. History and Biology
3. A day in the life of Adam and Eve a. The original affluent society b. Talking ghosts c. Peace or war? d. The curtain of silence
4. The Flood a. Guilty as charged b. The end of sloth c. Noah’s Ark

II. The Agricultural Revolution 5. History’s biggest fraud a. The luxury trap b. Divine intervention c. Victims of the revolution 6. Building pyramids a. The coming of the future b. An imagined order c. True believers d. The prison walls 7. Memory overload a. Signed, Kushim b. The wonders of bureaucracy c. The language of numbers 8. There is no justice in history a. The vicious cycle b. Purity in America c. He and she d. Sex and gender e. What’s so good about men? f. Muscle power g. The scum of Society h. Patriarchal genes

III. The unification of humankind 9. The arrow of history a. The spy satellite b. The global vision 10. The scent of money a. How much is it? b. Shells and cigarettes c. How does money work? d. The Gospel of gold e. The price of money 11. Imperial Visions a. What is an empire? b. Evil empires c. It’s for your own good d. When they become us e. Good guys and bad buys in history f. The new global empire 12. The law of religion a. Silencing the lamb b. The benefits of idolatry c. God is one d. The battle of good and evil e. The law of nature f. The worship of man g. Humanist religions – religions that worship humanity 13. The secret of success a. The hindsight fallacy b. The blind clio

IV. The Scientific Revolution 14. The discovery of ignorance a. Ignoramus b. The scientific dogma c. Knowledge is power d. The ideal of progress e. The Gilgamesh Project f. The sugar daddy of science 15. The marriage of science and empire a. Why Europe? b. The mentality of conquest c. Empty maps d. Invasion from outer space e. Rare spiders and forgotten scripts 16. The Capitalist creed a. A growing pie b. Columbus searches for an investor c. In the name of capital d. The cult of the free market e. The Capitalist hell 17. The wheels of industry a. The secret in the kitchen b. An ocean of energy c. Life on the conveyor belt d. The age of shopping 18. A permanent revolution a. Modern time b. The collapse of the family and the community c. Imagined community d. Perpetuum mobile e. Peace in our time f. Imperial retirement g. Pax Atomica 19. And they lived happily ever after a. Counting happiness b. Chemical happiness c. The meaning of life d. Know Thyself 20. The end of Homo Sapiens a. Of mice and men b. The return of the Neanderthals c. Bionic life d. Another life e. The singularity f. The Frankenstein prophecy

This is a very good book for those of us who like to review comprehensive knowledge, periodically, plus like to fill in some blanks. This is truly a work of art that should be useful to many who find time to read it. The author lectures at the Hebrew University Jerusalem. This book has been translated into more than 50 languages. It has sold millions of copies. The book starts with the birth of the earth, then gives us the agreed-upon years of important developments: 2.5 million years ago the earliest forms of man developed; 2 million years ago the earliest humans left Africa; 100,000 Homo Sapiens became dominant; 70,000 years ago early man began to develop cultures; 12,000 years ago began the Agricultural Revolution; 500 years ago began the Scientific Revolution. Homo Sapiens conquered the world, primarily, because of increased brain power and the ability to develop language. In the Cognitive Revolution, about 70,000 years ago, man developed gods, myths and religions. Larger and larger community groups were formed. Trade between groups emerged. This involved, per the author, “The instinct to gorge on high-calorie food was hard-wired into our genes.” Incidents of warfare were reduced. As early man became more and more settled, their ability to rule and control led to the extinction of many, many large animals. This occurred in all parts of the world. Per the author, this pattern continues today, with the loss of more and more plants and animals, including those in the seas and oceans. He calls us humans, “the deadliest species in the annals of biology.” Agricultural staples, such as rice, corn, wheat and potatoes, were cultivated inventions in the years of the Agricultural Revolution. But per the author, an enlarged sum of food did not translate into an improved diet. Also, per the author, the Agricultural Revolution was a trap. “There was no going back.” It initiated the pursuit for an easier and easier life. What this signals is one area that I found some problems with in the book. Near the end, the author tries to make the case that things actually might have been “better” many years ago. He talks about the quest for “happiness,” in a way that I found unconvincing. I thought it was a flaw in a very enjoyable book. Also pointed out is that man was able to select those types of animals that could be domesticated for our needs, such as the more-timid sheep, or the strongest, but most gentle oxen. Today, there are approximately one billion sheep, one million pigs and cattle, and 25 billion chicken being raised for the convenience of man. But as another hit on mankind, the author says that our domesticated animals, due to the ways they are now raised, may be “among the most miserable creatures that have ever lived.” As an example, a modern calf on a modern meat farm may spend its entire life – of only about four months – inside a tiny cage. All this for our enjoyment of a soft, juicy steak. The earth’s surface is about 200 million square miles. 3,500 years ago, man occupied less than three percent of the earth’s surface. For the vast majority of time, most humans were peasants. Progress required the emergence of numbers and writing. Cultures developed. Money, empires and universal religions spread. These three, per the author, “laid the foundation for the united world of today.” Per the author, “Trust is the raw material from which all types of money are minted.” Minted coins became the money of choice because of the ease of storage and transportation. But their value was always based on trust. Per the author, “human order is imagined.” Empires, per the author, have been “the most common form of political organization for the last 2,500 years.” He says that they do not work, long-term, mainly because it is not possible to rule over large numbers of conquered people forever. At the same time, empires can be quite stable. In the present time, per the author, “nationalism is fast losing ground.” (Were that to be true. ) Religion came during the Agricultural Revolution. All kinds of gods emerged to try to explain what could not be explained. Religions with multiple gods can explain differences between good and evil. Religions with one god have problems doing that. Per the author, Capitalism is the most successful of the modern religions. In a twist on the well-known tenant that the victors write history, the author says that “There is absolutely no proof that human well-being inevitably improves as history rolls along.” He discusses the history of Christianity. He seems to say that the past of history is, more or less, random or unpredictable. The advances in science came with the willingness to admit ignorance. Its emphasis was on observations and experiments, not on praying to a god for an answer. Until the Scientific Revolution, cultures did not believe in progress. For example, hunger and poverty would be seen as an inevitable “part of this imperfect world.” Now, per the author, poverty is more and more considered a technical problem. As are our eventual deaths. But science can be expensive. To move forward, it needs to be in alliance with some religion or culture. It was science that turned the world toward a dominance of the Western culture. In 1775, per the author, Asia had 80% of the world economy. Europe was an “economic dwarf.” But the Europeans were able to dominate the Asian powers by 1900. This was accomplished, primarily by the military-industrial-scientific complex and “technical wizardry.” European imperialism was built on capitalism. The discovery of America by Columbus was a big part of this. It led to the European explore-and-conquer expeditions. For the Europeans, building empires was a scientific project, based on capitalism. The author gives a great description of how banking works under capitalism, citing that, in some ways, it is a giant fraud, that a bank can lend money it really does not have. But, says the author, if it is a fraud, then the entire modern, world-wide economy is a fraud. In fact, it is all based on trust. And it is credit that “enables us to build the present at the expense of the future.” It was credit that allowed Spain to finance Columbus, not the income from taxes. All this was based on the belief that the total amount of wealth in the world is not limited. Progress gives people faith and trust in the future. But for capitalism to work well, there must be reinvestment, not just hoarding of wealth. But, per the author, in our modern world, there also may be a limit to the continuation of “printing money.” And, on the bad side, per the author, “Capitalism has killed millions out of cold indifference, coupled with greed.” The Industrial Revolution resulted in “an explosion in human productivity.” It did not, however, result in any equality of wealth. And at best, per the author, the modern economy is dependent on the masses to “give free rein to their cravings and passions to buy more and more.” Per the author, the modern era has witnessed the collapse of the family. He views the liberation of the individual as coming with a possible cost. He talks about “imagined communities,” as opposed to real ones. And, we become more and more dependent on international trade. True, violence is down, worldwide, in the past 70 years, in most parts of the world. But, says the author, “History has still not decided where we will end up….” This is where, I think, the author begins to veer off course a bit. Near the end of the book, he begins a discussion about whether we are “happier” or not. He actually suggests that the thrill of a wild, successful mammoth hunt would surpass the enjoyment of just about anything in the modern world. Huh? Then he says that “Every new invention puts us farther away from the Garden of Eden.” Huh? He says that modern industrial agriculture may be our “greatest crime.” And that “Perhaps it is also wrong to only consider the happiness of humans.” He suggests that we need to “re-engineer our biochemical system.” He talks about the benefits of Buddhism in distinguishing what is real and what it not. The future, he says, is unknown, and most people don’t want to think about it. He admits putting the brakes on progress is unlikely. He says that progress will continue to be justified as a search to make things “better.” Near the end, he says that “the Sapiens regime on earth has so far produced little that we can be proud of.” Per the author, we have not reduced the overall suffering in the world. And, we are accountable to no one. He ends with, “Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want.” I would have preferred something like, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” But that is not what you get from reading this book, which is full of great information on the history of humankind.

“Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark.”

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari is one of the most entertaining and informative books I’ve read in a long time. It usually takes me longer to get through nonfiction than fiction, but I blew through this book despite it being a bit of a tome. In fact I didn’t even notice how long it was until I saw the paper version later. It’s that accessible and so much fun to read.

I learned so much about history, social culture, and the human race from Sapiens. For instance, this following idea blew me away: gossip, not physical strength or military cunning, is what makes leaders and binds communities and nations. It seems we developed language just to talk about each other, not for trade or power or more.

I loved how Mr. Harari the word “fiction” (aka common myths) to describe the concepts that let large numbers of strangers cooperate across space and time: “There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.” This is kind of terrifying, but also quite true if you stop to think about it.

I also found it darkly amusing and irreverent how he talks about philosophies and hate groups and religions and economic models, all in the same breath: “Some religions, such as Christianity and Nazism, have killed millions out of burning hatred… Capitalism has killed millions out of cold indifference coupled with greed.”

I got a crash course in mega fauna, those giant animals that existed on earth for thousands of years until humans killed them off in a matter of decades: the giant diprotodon, a 2.5 ton wombat, dragon-like lizards, snakes seven feet long, a 450 pound six foot kangaroo, a marsupial lion as massive as the modern tiger, a flightless elephant bird, ten feet tall and half a ton (the largest bird in the world), and the giant lemur (earth’s largest primate).

“Don’t believe our ancestors lived in harmony with nature. Homo sapiens hold the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.”

Mr. Harari trashes the Agricultural Revolution: “This is the essence of the Agricultural Revolution: the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions.” Nor does he spare the Scientific Revolution: “The Scientific Revolution and modern imperialism were inseparable.” Naturally, religion doesn’t stand a chance, especially the monotheist ones of today which are described as far more fanatical and missionary than the more tolerant open-minded polytheist religions of old. Only Buddhism seems to get a bit of a pass.

Each concept and chapter of human history is explained with compelling examples, from economics to history to biology to psychology and so on. In some ways, it seems we’re heading forward, with less violence than ever before, new forms of consciousness, life continuing as we could not imagine it, but continuing all the same. For e.g., Mr. Harari explains that ecological degradation is not the same as resource scarcity, and that in fact, our resources (solar and wind power, man made materials, etc) are constantly increasing, and are likely to continue to do so. The environment on the other hand…

But in more ways, Sapiens is an indictment. It is undeniable that “a significant proportion of humanity’s cultural achievements owe their existence to the exploitation of conquered populations,” that “there is no justice in history” and that perhaps happiness is the act of “synchronizing one’s personal delusions of meaning with the prevailing collective delusions.”

The parts about animal husbandry are incendiary. From age old practices to modern slaughterhouses, “tens of billions of animals have been subjected to a regime of industrial exploitation whose cruelty has no precedent in the annals of planet Earth. If we accept a mere tenth of what animal rights activists are claiming, then modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history.” The descriptions of some of these practices are chilling, perhaps enough to persuade you towards vegetarianism.

I found it strangely comforting, in these bad sad days of war and terrorism and misogyny and hatred, to be reminded that this phase we’re in where we work as urban labourers and office workers has only lasted a couple hundred years. The 10,000 years before that, we were farmers and herders, and even that is a vanishing second compared to the tens of thousands of years of human hunters and gatherers. We have a long way to go and much more to learn. And anyway, the nihilists have always known that “from a purely scientific viewpoint, human life has absolutely no meaning.”

If you’re tender about things like religion, capitalism, or even human rights, Sapiens won’t give you a break. But it is one rollicking relevant read.