a book
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · 2015 · 464 pages
Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout. #1 New York Times Bestseller The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg, now available as a beautifully packaged paperback From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.
recommended by 86 people
sourced from public statements
Andrej Karpathy
“Sapiens offers a good overview of broad trends that have shaped the human civilization from prehistoric to modern times, but suffers from inconsistent assumptions about its target audience and, due to its scope, an abundance of high-level statements that don’t connect. My chief criticism of the book is that it does seem to address a consistent audience. One minute the book discusses and explains a broad trend (e.g. the empire, or capitalism) and then abruptly dives into very specific examples from history to support its statements (e.g. a briefly alluded to specific battle during the expansion of the British empire). The problem is that as an ordinarily-educated person, I am familiar with the basic ideas such as capitalism so these sections bore me, but I am not at all familiar with the details of specific conflicts or related circumstances. As such, I spent the majority of the book either bored, or confused and overwhelmed with information that was seemingly assumed. Overall, the book often felt as a work of a historian written for other historians, selling and supporting certain historical interpretations that the author believes to be true. Not an attempt to teach the general audience about history. I enjoyed the first part of the book dealing with prehistoric times - these chapters were fun to read, perhaps partly due to my relative lack of knowledge of this era. From there, my enjoyment of this book diminished monotonically until the end, which suddenly features several hours of philosophical musings about the point of life and happiness. If you’re looking to get a basic idea about some broad strokes of our history, you might enjoy the first parts of this book. If you’re, like me, trying to get a better and more concrete sense of what life was like in different times of our history, this book never spends enough time and depth to paint and communicate a coherent picture and you will end up disappointed.”
Bill Gates
“I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a fun, engaging look at early human history.”↗
Naval Ravikant
“I love that book so much.”↗
PewDiePie
“It seems that the author has his own ideas about certain things like capitalism and socialism and these. I guess they're complex things to describe anyway. The bias of the author to me is clear in there, at least. And that sort of mudded the waters. But regardless, I really really enjoyed this book.”
Chris Williamson
“The seminal breakdown of how human civilisation was founded, evolved, matured and developed. Basically a story book of our species’ own history. Beautifully written in an enjoyable style with vivid descriptions and narratives. Another great break from reading non-fiction purely for self- development. I found myself taking a lot from this book which informed how I saw the world without labouring or obsessing over retaining everything. Makes for a fantastic Audible listen.”↗
Peter Attia
“Q: Are there any books you haven’t mentioned that you feel would make your reading list? P.A.: I would also include the following books: The Emperor of All Maladies, Where Men Win Glory, The President’s Club, The Most Important Thing, Sapiens, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, 10 Percent Happier, The Rommel Papers, King of the World, The Corner and Good Calories, Bad Calories.”↗
Lex Fridman
“Basically one of the things we've created here is we've imagined ideas that we all share.”↗
Reid Hoffman
“A grand theory of humanity.”↗
Changpeng Zhao
“3 books I recommended on Pomp's podcast. These books help you understand how our world works (or doesn’t work). This understanding is essential for success.”↗
Nathaniel Drew
“"Sapiens" This book is a masterpiece. Nothing I've ever read has so greatly shifted my perspective on humanity. Listening to the sweeping prose on the origins and evolution of our race on this earth felt like I left my body and floated above the clouds. From there, I watched thousands of years unfold as our ancestors experienced all of the evolving wonders and horrors of what it meant to be a human. Something about this book just made things click for me. How and why we operate and interact the way that we do, the origins of tribalism, religion, and money, and how these things exist in our world today. I find these insights useful in my day to day life actually. They kind of inform many of my decisions, and how I interpret what occurs around me.”↗
Sophie Hawley-Weld (Sofi Tukker)
“phillip_barone: Sapiens sophiehawleyweld: @phillip_barone the best.”↗
Joe Gadway
“Wonderful book! Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Francis Bacon said history can make us wise. Here is a history of the whole human race!”↗
Whitney Cummings
“A great book about how we’ve evolved and why we have anxiety.”↗
Demis Hassabis
“Really great book”↗
Karlie Kloss
“It’s an amazing book on the beginning of humanity. It’s scientific but also philosophical. It’s written by Yuval Noah Harari. I heard him speak and it’s fascinating. It’s about humanity and how we came to be. It’s a book that I carried around for a while but it’s like 500 pages.”↗
Ashton Kutcher
“The brainy book I seem to be sharing or talking about the most lately.”↗
James Cameron
“It explains human behavior and why we are the way we are in human civilization from soup to nuts. And I’ve read it now a couple of times. It’s a pretty astonishing book.”↗
Greg Siskind
“Day 3: I’ve been nominated by @filadin to post covers of 7 books that I love with no explanations or reviews. Each time I post I will ask another to take up the challenge. Today I nominate @bluebirds4418”↗
Sebastian Junger
“I’m going to give Sapiens over and over again to everyone I know.”↗
Helen Zille
“@Savo_Heleta Just a little quote from Yuval Harari's Sapiens, one of the best books I read this year. Someone should have given it to you for Christmas, if you are prepared to look beyond your Fanon blinkers.”↗
Jessica Alba
“American Like Me by @AmericaFerrera & Sapiens -A Brief History of Humankind @harari_yuval”↗
Trevor Sumner
“@JJFilson Great book and agree. But can wealth just be created by desire? It may not be a zero sum game but aren’t there some constraints? If we keep creating more and more wealth mechanisms, can we just buy more things with no downside?”↗
Chris Evans
“I’ve said it before and I’ll definitely say it in the future, the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is truly mind-blowing. It’s changed the way I look at almost everything. I can’t endorse it enough.”↗
Simon Mayo
“Love this book still”↗
Mitch Joel
“Have you read the book, Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari? Great read. Here's his @TEDTalks on the topic. Mind=blown:”↗
Hrithik Roshan
“@joy_in_words Book - Sapiens, Movie - Aviator”↗
Marcellus Wiley
““Sapiens” by Yuval Harari Great book!”↗
Alicia Vikander
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