Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Hebrew: קיצור תולדות האנושות, [Ḳitsur toldot ha-enoshut]) is a book by Yuval Noah Harari, first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 based on a series of lectures Harari taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in English in 2014. The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. The account is situated within a framework that intersects the natural sciences with the social sciences.
The book has gathered mixed reviews. While it was positively received by the general public, scholars with relevant subject matter expertise have been very critical of its scientific claims.
Lots to think about... I loved some of it, and many of the ideas presented made me question my outlook of the world! He also, however, threw a few curved balls, and let myth sit as fact in places. One of my favourite stories from the book, the one about Buzz Aldrin and the Native American, looks to be a myth for example.
Other sections just didn't come to much (the chapter on gender for example, although it was written 2011 and these debates develop quickly). It is interesting to see how the book has aged... sometimes well, sometimes not so much. Overall worth the read, and helpful for reflecting on these things.
Primer de tot, li poso 5 estrelles perquè rarament aconsegueixo acabar un llibre tant llarg havent-lo llegit d'una manera tan fragmentada, cosa que diu molt de l'estil de redacció.
Dit això, he passat per sentiments molt contrariats durant la lectura del llibre, moltes tenen a veure amb la meva ideologia, mes vermella que no pas altra cosa, però no descarto que moltes d'aquestes queixes vinguin mes del meu desconeixement. Per altra banda si que puc coincidir que en moltes coses el autor peca de reduccionista i si ve entenc que per explicar tota la historia de la humanitat no et pots anar entretenint gaire, com a mínim si vols ser atractiu per el públic general, que es el que intenta el llibre, si que he trobat que en algunes seccions, com per exemple quan parla de la discriminació de la dona o d'altres temes que ara no puc posar per …
Primer de tot, li poso 5 estrelles perquè rarament aconsegueixo acabar un llibre tant llarg havent-lo llegit d'una manera tan fragmentada, cosa que diu molt de l'estil de redacció.
Dit això, he passat per sentiments molt contrariats durant la lectura del llibre, moltes tenen a veure amb la meva ideologia, mes vermella que no pas altra cosa, però no descarto que moltes d'aquestes queixes vinguin mes del meu desconeixement. Per altra banda si que puc coincidir que en moltes coses el autor peca de reduccionista i si ve entenc que per explicar tota la historia de la humanitat no et pots anar entretenint gaire, com a mínim si vols ser atractiu per el públic general, que es el que intenta el llibre, si que he trobat que en algunes seccions, com per exemple quan parla de la discriminació de la dona o d'altres temes que ara no puc posar per escrit perquè nomes recordo el mal gust de boca i no pas el contingut, si hagues pogut passar mes estona. També s'afegeix a això el fet de que això es un llibre i no m'hi puc discutir, cosa que he tingut moltes ganes de fer moltes vegades, perquè semblaria esquizofrènic.
Tot i aquests comentaris crítics sobre el llibre, m'ha semblat molt entretingut, m'ha donat una visió general sobre molts temes d'història que ni sabia i em sento agraït per això. Se m'ha fet molt fàcil de llegir i no he tingut cap problema amb passar-m'hi una o casi dues hores casi seguides llegint-lo, cosa que en el moment de la vida en el que estic es tot un repte amb els inputs del mòbil que rebo tot i havent deixat tik tok. A mes a mes el llibre acaba amb un epíleg excel·lent amb uns tons foscos sobre si realment tot i que pensem que l'humà ha avançat potser tots aquests avencos no han sigut cap progres vis a vi bombes nuclears i armament en general, genocidis, maltracte animal a una escala brutal, pobresa extrema etc... I m'encanta que les histories no acabin be (si be aquesta historia no es de ficció).
També en els últims capítols intenta treure'n el sentit de la felicitat, que es, com la percebem i si realment, tot el que em fet i el que ha requerit ha servit de quelcom i la felicitat general de la població ha augmentat respecte als cacadors recol·lectors originals. Òbviament això no es resol al llibre, però fa uns plantejaments molt bons ( tot i que segur que algun neoliberal / capitalista els farà servir per justificar que la pobresa no està tan malament i que la desigualtat global no es rellevant perquè la felicitat de les persones no està tan relacionada amb el mon extern sinó amb el intern).
Segur que amb el temps trobo mes coses a dir però de moment ho deixo aquí. Un bon llibre i molt recomanat.
Nice historical factoids, then a head-scratching over-simplification, followed by an assumption, etc. Sometimes felt like reading a puffed-up Wikipedia article.
A gentle expansion of your world view, this book will help you see human history in a whole new light. Is Buddhism a religion or an ideology? Is money real, or a part of our collective imagination? Who are we? Who do we want to become?
Eine absolute Empfehlung für jeden, der sich einigermaßen für die Geschichte und Evolution der Menschheit interessiert. Das Buch liest sich wie ein Krimi und gibt ganz neue Einblicke in diesem spannenden Gebiet.
Bücher über wissenschaftliche Themen können ja verdammt zäh sein. Man fühlt sich manchmal eher wie in einer drögen Vorlesen und nur sehr bedingt unterhalten. Bei Harari ist das völlig anders.
Die Geschichte der Menschheit "kurz" (der Wälzer ist immer noch dick genug) und so lesbar zu beschreiben, dabei aber immer wissenschaftlich fundiert und nachvollziehbar, das ist schon eine Meisterleistung. Man versteht auch sofort, woher einige Entwicklungen der Menschheit kommen, ohne sich dabei belehrt zu fühlen.
Eine absolute Empfehlung. Vielleicht nichts für die ganz jungen und (die meisten) Teens, aber Jugendlich und alle Erwachsenen sollten das Buch ganz dringend lesen.
I highly want to recommend this novel. It enlightened me in regards of the human history and its culture by a wide margin. In addition to the storytelling, design and illustration it makes it to one of the graphic novels I enjoyed the most so far.
Review of 'Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Großartig. Natürlich kein Geschichtswerk, das jede Schlacht und Revolution abdeckt, sondern das eher das große Ganze abdeckt und zumindest meine Gehirnzellen sehr aktivierte.
Review of 'Summary: Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Those of us prone to questioning humanity, our own and in general, are bound to find some clarity in this exceptionally clearly written history. It was especially helpful for me in my pandemic-induced reassessment of my place in the world.
Review of 'Summary: Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Das war schon beeindruckend - jede Menge interessante Informationen darüber, wie sich der Homo Sapiens zur vorherrschenden Art auf diesem Planeten aufgeschwungen hat und wie wir und unsere Gesellschaft überhaupt funktionieren. Er geht dabei auf die unterschiedlichsten Aspekte ein (Landwirtschaft, Wissenschaft, Religion, Ideologien).
Die Sprache ist leicht zu lesen, bildhaft und häufig mit einer Prise Humor gewürzt. Man benötigt nicht wirklich viele Vorkenntnisse, um dem Autor zu folgen, die Bereitschaft, sich auf bestimmte Gedankenspiele einzulassen, reicht völlig aus. Auf jeden Fall weckt dieses Buch die Lust auf mehr Bücher von Harari und regt zu weiterer Recherche an.
Review of 'Summary: Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I wanted to enjoy this book, hoping it would have something new about early man I didn't know but before, but really didn't. I ended up getting not very far at all before I couldn't stand any more. The way the author kept calling things like social hierarchies 'imagined fictions' grated on me. If I'm a dumb dog, and I go to food, and observe another dog tries to bite me whenever I go near that food, and that dog is bigger than me and won't bite me if I wait my turn, then my lack of imagination doesn't stop that situation from being reality. Similarly, society doesn't need fictions from things like religion - it did serve a useful function and I don't mind a book that acknowledges that early society used it for things like banding together to attack a common 'enemy' (read: the guy with food/goods you …
I wanted to enjoy this book, hoping it would have something new about early man I didn't know but before, but really didn't. I ended up getting not very far at all before I couldn't stand any more. The way the author kept calling things like social hierarchies 'imagined fictions' grated on me. If I'm a dumb dog, and I go to food, and observe another dog tries to bite me whenever I go near that food, and that dog is bigger than me and won't bite me if I wait my turn, then my lack of imagination doesn't stop that situation from being reality. Similarly, society doesn't need fictions from things like religion - it did serve a useful function and I don't mind a book that acknowledges that early society used it for things like banding together to attack a common 'enemy' (read: the guy with food/goods you want) or to justify laws (something that 'hey, we do not like it when our neighbors murder each other, maybe let us all agree to gang up on the murdery guy' would be sufficient to do, and doesn't require any fiction in the slightest, just a recognition of other people's mental states and plans, which, last I checked, are stored in neurons and thus entirely material nonfictional things) but I just really detest the particular word choices here. I wanted more scholarly established history, less personal philosophy.
Read Gun, Germs and Steel instead for genuinely interesting hypotheses in a book that at least tries to back up its ideas with actual history and evidence, such as zebra behavior making them undomesticateable (though since wild horses turned out to just be feral ones - or may be, it's been awhile since I've read that article, it may be debatable how much we can learn from comparing Pretzwalksi wild horse behavior in captivity to zebra).
Review of 'Summary: Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
First feeling: I really enjoyed 99% of this book. The ending, which focuses more on our species' future was less credible, or maybe less well explained.
Second feeling: this ending is meant to make people react. Saying "I don't agree with it" means I don't understand it (yet?)
Third feeling: he's making a lot of future assumptions about things that he says himself may not even come up. Nobody foresaw the internet. So things will very likely end up being quite different from what we expect.
Review of 'Summary: Sapiens: A brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I'd heard a lot of good about this book, and the start was promising, but then I started to get a little annoyed...
There are natural limitations to a book, and a book like this, taking so broad a subject, must of necessity be superficial and selective, but even so, this one quickly wound up feeling far less a history of humankind, and far more a history of Euro-american humankind. Most annoying conisdering how global a view it started with. And so towards the end I come across bits like this:
"When judging modernity, it is all too tempting to take the viewpoint of a twenty-first century middle-class Westerner. We must not forget the viewpoints of a nineteenth-century Welsh coal miner, Chinese opium addict or Tasmanian Aborigine. Truganini is not less important than Homer Simpson."
And that all sounds very good, and I agree, but I wonder how it is …
I'd heard a lot of good about this book, and the start was promising, but then I started to get a little annoyed...
There are natural limitations to a book, and a book like this, taking so broad a subject, must of necessity be superficial and selective, but even so, this one quickly wound up feeling far less a history of humankind, and far more a history of Euro-american humankind. Most annoying conisdering how global a view it started with. And so towards the end I come across bits like this:
"When judging modernity, it is all too tempting to take the viewpoint of a twenty-first century middle-class Westerner. We must not forget the viewpoints of a nineteenth-century Welsh coal miner, Chinese opium addict or Tasmanian Aborigine. Truganini is not less important than Homer Simpson."
And that all sounds very good, and I agree, but I wonder how it is that Harari managed to not take his own advice...
I am also left with the feeling that Harari overly romanticises the pre-Agricultural hunter-gatherer lifestyle, but also pre-Industrial societies. Certainly the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions were highly disruptive and brought many disadvantages, but sitting here in the comfort of a stable, 21st century democracy, it's hard not to see the advantages those revolutions have brought. Vaccines, for starters.
Then, looking at the future, the rise of information technology, the possibility of artificial intelligence:
"What is a spaceship compared to an eternally young cyborg who does not breed and has no sexuality, who can share thoughts directly with other beings, whose abilities to focus and remember are a thousand times greater than our own, and sho is never angry or sad, but has emotions and desires that we cannot begin to imagine?
Science fiction rarely describes such a future, because an accurate description is by definition incomprehensible."
I recommend Harari try reading Isaac Asimov. "I, Robot" and "Bicentennial Man" do not match the above description (robots vs. cyborgs), but they do imagine a future where AI has developed to the point of taking on a life of its own.
So, "Sapiens" gets off to a promising start, but quickly descends into a glib, superficial, eurocentric disappointment.
