Sapiens
A Brief History of Humankind
How an unremarkable African ape became the dominant force on the planet, told through the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions.
Yuval Noah Harari’s sweeping history traces Homo sapiens from an unremarkable African ape to the dominant force on the planet. He organizes the story around the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions, and argues that shared fictions like money, religion, and nations are what let strangers cooperate at scale. Provocative and wide-ranging, the book asks whether all our progress has actually made us happier. A global bestseller that reshaped how many readers see human history.
Recommended by 5 People
James Clear
Human history has been shaped by three major revolutions: the Cognitive Revolution (70,000 years ago), the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 years ago), and the Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). These revolutions have empowered humans to do something no other form of life has done, which is to create and connect around ideas that do not physically exist (think religion, capitalism, and politics). These shared “myths” have enabled humans to take over the globe and have put humankind on the verge of overcoming the forces of natural selection.
Derek Sivers
But wow - this book is at its best when the author is sharing his personal perspective about binding myths, humanism, and other ways that “truths” are not true.
Mark Zuckerberg
Book Club · May 2015
Ali Abdaal
Video · December 2022
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