Sapiens
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER
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4.5 • 47 Ratings
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
'Interesting and provocative... It gives you a sense of how briefly we've been on this Earth' Barack Obama
What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens?
One of the world's preeminent historians and thinkers, Yuval Noah Harari challenges everything we know about being human.
Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us.
In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we're going.
**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**
PRAISE FOR SAPIENS:
'Jaw-dropping from the first word to the last... It may be the best book I've ever read' Chris Evans
'Startling... It changes the way you look at the world' Simon Mayo
'I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who's interested in the history and future of our species' Bill Gates
Over 2 million copies sold since publication [Nielsen BookScan UK, Circana BookScan US, April 2024]
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’ve ever lamented the state of the world and the environmental and political chaos swirling all around us, this book is for you. Israeli historian Yuval Harari argues that the roots of humanity’s current problems can be found by tracing our footsteps way, way back in time. Sapiens—a breakaway hit around the world—explores our species’ history by following a series of cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions that occurred over the course of 100,000 years and up to the present. Harari uses critical insights and philosophical reflections to deliver takeaway lessons about the past that could help shape our future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Writing with wit and verve, Harari, professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, attempts to explain how Homo sapiens came to be the dominant species on Earth as well as the sole representative of the human genus. He notes that from roughly two million years ago until about 10,000 years ago, we were not the only humans on the planet; many species preceded us, and some overlapped our tenure. Harari argues persuasively that three revolutions explain our current situation. The first, the cognitive revolution, occurred approximately 70,000 years ago and gave us "fictive" language, enabling humans to share social constructs as well as a powerful "imagined reality" that led to complex social systems. The second, the agricultural revolution, occurred around 12,000 years ago and allowed us to settle into permanent communities. The third, the scientific revolution, began around 500 years ago and allowed us to better understand and control our world. Throughout, Harari questions whether human progress has led to increased human happiness, concluding that it's nearly impossible to show that it has. Harari is provocative and entertaining but his expansive scope only allows him to skim the surface.
Customer Reviews
Good book
Good book
Open minds
This is the slowest book to read. I was confronted on every subject, forced to rethink and evaluate existing ideas, assumptions, conclusions, and the process continued page after page. There is no neatly packaged conclusion. I loved this book.
What happens after Covid-19?
An amazing read, even now some six long years since it was published.
It sets itself apart with the care the author takes to substantiate what he writes, underpinning his statements with what must have been extraordinary feats of research.
I expected at first to be drawn into the vortex of far-fetched theories often lurking in the depths of books of this genre, but they did not materialise and he kept me engaged with fact-based accounts that coalesced into a central theme that is fascinating and logical.
Of course, a follow up is now required, especially since the onset of Covid-19. What long-term implications does the pandemic hold?
He warned us that the journey towards super-beings was bound to be influenced by unforeseen complications.
He was right.