Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Ratings852
Average rating4.2
Educational history book that reads like a novel. I loved it and have been recommending it to anyone who will listen.
In hindsight, this book is so deceivingly simple that you are swept away in its prose - but you later realize that Harari's arguments either do not make sense at all or even if they sometimes do, they are not backed up with data. I'd rather read Piketty or Ferguson, who make for dry reading, but at the very least, they try to back up their opinions with fact.
Entertaining and thought provoking, but ultimately infotainment, self-righteous, and often sensationalist.
3.5/5
A must read! It is a heavy read but I assure you it is worth it. It will answer the questions about the history of humans you didn't even know you had.
Everybody has described the book, and probably better than I could. I enjoyed the book, it was engaging, raised some interesting questions, presented some good hypotheses and was at time quite funny. What more do you want me to say?
This book is an impressive tome, but it's also clearly biased in favor of a particular political view. I suppose it isn't possible for a human to write wholly without bias, but I found it distracting. The narrator sounded disgusted and dismayed while reading the bits that blame a reliance on government for the decay of the extended family and local communities.
This book is EXACTLY what I was looking for – a brief synopsis of humankind and how today's world came into being. I found myself increasingly engrossed in our story as I read, and it's concepts could be more directly applied to present society.
A must read for anyone looking for a fundamental understanding around history, economics, politics or the meaning of life.
Life is tough, but I'd say life now is much better than being a hunter gatherer. Slaving away at a mundane, low-paying job could be seen as a personal hell, but self awareness is possible with some luck. Harari talks about a modern Chinese citizen working at a sweatshop, and compares it to life as a hunter gatherer, saying that the hunter gatherer's life is more fulfilling. How would it be possible to know how that life is better without having the perspective that we do now as a modern society? I mean, I'm typing this as a citizen in one of the most powerful and prosperous nations to ever exist, and I can thank my farming ancestors for allowing me to do this. “We didn't domesticate wheat, wheat domesticated us.”
I liked the first chapters of the book and the ideas of our development as the top dog, but it just felt so redundant and preachy toward the end. It didn't feel super insightful and as I kept reading I only felt like I wanted to read more in depth works (which is a good thing the book has brought me). It didn't feel like there were any new ideas and it felt very watered down. I guess what can I expect from a 400 page book on all of human history.
I feel like the last section could be summed:“Capitalism and imperialism bad, but without it there are no scientific improvements”. He teeters back and forth between if we are really happy in our day and age or not, constantly retracting his main thesis of our revolutions being bad for the individual human. I agree that we are more complicated individually, but I believe that we can have a more fulfilling life if we so choose.
Overall, it was a good book to refresh my memory about parts of human history and why we are the way we are currently. It's always good to think about our species objectively as I don't think we get enough of that day to day when we're constantly in our bubbles and stuck in our stimulation loops. Hunter gatherers couldn't afford to lay in bed for 6 hours doom scrolling on instagram shorts...
An international bestseller, hitting a lot of areas I'm interested in. I should have guessed this is going to be a disappointment.When it goes into details, it's often slightly wrong. When it goes into broad overviews, it repeats itself over and over, like a university teacher, trying to make sure his distracted students remember what he says. And when it starts to predict the future, oh damn, then it really shows the author does not read any decent futurologists or sci-fi authors.Looking for a broad strokes history? Read [b: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 1842 Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies Jared Diamond https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453215833l/1842.SY75.jpg 2138852]Looking for an overview of how money and credit shaped human societies? Read [b: Debt: The First 5,000 Years 6617037 Debt The First 5,000 Years David Graeber https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390408633l/6617037.SY75.jpg 6811142]Looking for speculation on how technological changes feed and reinforce cultural and psychological changes? Read [a: Peter Watts 27167 Peter Watts https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] or [a: William Gibson 9226 William Gibson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] or [a: Jacek Dukaj 681591 Jacek Dukaj https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254912251p2/681591.jpg] or [a: Charles Stross 8794 Charles Stross https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1355510574p2/8794.jpg]...
Good informations are given and serious reflexions are made about humans and other living beings.
This book was really interesting to me, the author uses a lot of stories to show humans through time. The book makes a lot of points that make you think. I preferred the historical portion of the book, the end started to theorize about the future which I did not enjoy as much.
Very interesting book, loved most of it very much.
The only thing that kind of bothered me is that then author comes across as both incredibly nihilistic and deterministic of how the world works. Kind of confusing. For all the nuance he brings in certain areas he is very adamant about his perception on what the myths are we build our lives around.
Anyways.. A good read.
Contains some quite interesting thoughts. The approach author uses to illustrate his points IS IRRITATINGLY unprofessional. But since this book is not a textbook... so probably i shouldn't complain.
Great way to learn and think about humanity. Past, present and future.
Sincèrement un des livres les plus intéressants qu'il ne m'ait jamais été donné de lire. En 500 pages, Yuval Noah Harari retrace l'intégralité de l'histoire de l'humanité, du berceau de la civilisation à nos jours, chamboulant à peu près tout ce que j'avais pu apprendre en cours d'histoire et de biologie, offrant un regard neuf et incisif sur notre Histoire et notre rapport à notre monde. Le nombre de passages que j'ai surligné dans ce livre est juste hallucinant, tout comme le branle-bas de combat qu'il a mis en 500 pages dans ma population neuronale. Je trouve que l'on devrait mettre ce livre dans les mains de tout le monde tellement il est riche d'enseignements et remet énormément de choses en perspective. Donc foncez vous le procurer et dévorez le, on en discutera avec plaisir !
A fascinating read, but I struggled to engage with large sections. I dipped in and out a bit which probably didn't help my cause, but nontheless the sections I DID engage with were incredibly interesting.
I read this and homo deus in the wrong order but that did not effect the enjoyment of them. Harari's books are well thought out and very satisfying to read.
Pretty good first half; rather iffy in parts of the second half.
3.5 stars.
It is a very readable book (and thus many GR critics call it “intelectually watered down” however the points are all well made, easy to follow and, but it might be my current “fuck Homo Sapiens and I am glad we did not have children to inherit the mess we are creating” mood I agreed with most of the assertions. Having also just watched a fascinating BBC documentary on the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and how, even though they never “joined” the Agricultural Revolution stage they created a culture that was rich in art and other pursuits that we only associate with escaping the hunter-gatherer stage, it further resonated on whether human happiness increase with advanced technology.
Amazing book. The author has such a strong understanding of political, religious, social and emotional systems, combining them all to give context on how the world has reached it's current state.
Struggled with interest in part 1, but parts 2 and 3 build up to an incredible part 4 on the scientific revolution with particularly awesome chapters on capitalism, and happiness (separate topics :)).
Enjoyed the very occasional hints of humor, too.
Sapiens is the most well written, concise, and thought provoking book on the history of mankind I've ever read. Yuval managed to build upon the most fundamental concepts in life and history chapter after chapter in a way that kept the narrative consistent and easy to follow throughout. I can't recommend this book highly enough to friends and family.
While I found the writing style a bit ranty and long-winded for me at times, there was still plenty of information here.
I've been a slower reader than usual but it looks like I'm back!! Yesterday was a very heavy errand day (and I took a long walk!) so I finished this all in 2 days. I thought it was really good, interesting, and thought provoking. I read a decent amount of non fiction and this was very well written and flowed well. Impressed with the authors writing style.