eBook, 466 pages
English language
Published Sept. 4, 2014 by Vintage.
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 …
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.
La historia de la humanidad, desde un acercamiento biológico y antropológico. Sostiene un análisis casi neutral y semi lineal. La voz escribe en tercera persona lo que juega un papel interesante en la no identificación de la especie humana, y generar mayor comprensión de nuestra naturaleza.
Lots to think about... I loved some of it, and many of the ideas presented made me question my outlook of the world! He also, however, threw a few curved balls, and let myth sit as fact in places. One of my favourite stories from the book, the one about Buzz Aldrin and the Native American, looks to be a myth for example. Other sections just didn't come to much (the chapter on gender for example, although it was written 2011 and these debates develop quickly). It is interesting to see how the book has aged... sometimes well, sometimes not so much. Overall worth the read, and helpful for reflecting on these things.
There's a bookstore/coffeeshop I used to go to where I once heard another customer expound in an initially impressive and interesting manner that started to sound like BS after a while. I bought this book at that store and had the same experience reading it. Initially, it's informative and entertaining in the style of science books I usually enjoy, but after a while the author just sounded like the coffee shop arguer who loves to hold forth and after a while you can't believe anything he says. After some passages of there-are-some-other-theories-but-I-just-don't-buy-it, and self contractory grand statements like all those authoritarian conquerors really thought they were doing good, and later, all those authoritarian conquerors, they lied, I started wondering if this guy is for real, checked wikipedia and saw despite the celebrity endorsements (thanks, Obama), there are a lot of academic criticisms, and that was enough for me. As with …
There's a bookstore/coffeeshop I used to go to where I once heard another customer expound in an initially impressive and interesting manner that started to sound like BS after a while. I bought this book at that store and had the same experience reading it. Initially, it's informative and entertaining in the style of science books I usually enjoy, but after a while the author just sounded like the coffee shop arguer who loves to hold forth and after a while you can't believe anything he says. After some passages of there-are-some-other-theories-but-I-just-don't-buy-it, and self contractory grand statements like all those authoritarian conquerors really thought they were doing good, and later, all those authoritarian conquerors, they lied, I started wondering if this guy is for real, checked wikipedia and saw despite the celebrity endorsements (thanks, Obama), there are a lot of academic criticisms, and that was enough for me. As with the coffee shop arguer, I just stopped paying attention and abandoned the book after a few chapters.
This books tries to talk about everything but ends up talking about nothing.
It takes the sweetest bits, the sensational bits, from the most popular disciplines, smash them together to make a very provocative and fascinating book. Going through chapter after chapter felt like brainlessly scrolling through TikTok style videos, the obnoxious particular kind that start with the phrase "Did you knogw that...".
I think that Harari wanted to be impersonal while expounding his favourite scientific facts, nonetheless I found him to be tendentious and biased, even if only in a small number of occasions, particularly when adding to the fact.
It's very convincing and I really appreciate the ideas and perspective on religion especially. I learned long after reading it about the complete disregard for evidence and accuracy.
Bon llibre que fa un repàs, evidentment succint, a la història de la humanitat des de l'inici fins, més o menys, ara, des d'un punt de vista molt crític al capitalisme, al liberalisme i a la forma de gestionar-ho tot que tenim els humans en general. Una molt bona, a estones densa, lectura.
Sapiens (2011, Harper) 4 stars
(Audiobook) I already knew a lot of the content but I enjoy having it from a new perspective with a variety of new anecdotes. At some points I distinctly felt like the author's biases were coming through--in fact at some points I really questioned his ideas--but otherwise an enjoyable and informative book.
