sapiens a brief history of humankind by yuval noah harari

It’s this ability to imagine that separates humans from the rest of animals. We can imagine groups, myths, companies, and all of the real and imaginary struggles that can bring us together and tear us apart.

Any large-scale human cooperation – whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe – is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination.”Īs humans, we have the unique capacity to imagine. “Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. “You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.” By the end, you will understand the broad strokes of history and be able to contextualize modern concerns and questions.Īccess My Searchable Collection of 100+ Book Notes Key Takeaways The power of the human imagination Harari provides a refreshingly comprehensive, engaging, and scientific account of history. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?įeaturing 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.Absolute must read. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. 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. 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.ĭr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Yet today there is only one-homo sapiens. One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerbergįrom 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.”

Sapiens a brief history of humankind by yuval noah harari