Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (audiobook) - Paul's REVIEW

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Title: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Year Published: 2015

Narrator: Derek Perkins
Audiobook Length: 15 hours 18 minutes


Synopsis: 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.

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Review: This book is so eye-opening. I come from a science background. I have a degree in marine biology. Many of the subjects in this book were touched on in various classes I took like Sociology and Evolutionary Biology, but this book goes into more depth and makes it simple to follow. The economic chapters had my jaw dropping. The origin of money. So many things in the world only work because we all believe that they work.

This book follows the timeline of humanity. It is broad enough that I think most people would be able to follow. There are both simple and complex topics, but the more elaborate ones have excellent analogies and guides to understanding them better. 

I recommend every human on Earth to read this book. It gives you a perspective of all the things humans have done in the small blip we have been on this planet. I give this book a 5/5.   


--PAUL