Sergey Machulskis reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
It was amazing
5 stars
The proper title is "Sapiens: A brief history of humankind's beliefs".
eBook, 466 pages
English language
Published Sept. 3, 2014 by Vintage.
4 stars
(85 reviews)
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 …
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.
RamenWitch reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens
La historia de la humanidad, desde un acercamiento biológico y antropológico. Sostiene un análisis casi neutral y semi lineal. La voz escribe en tercera persona lo que juega un papel interesante en la no identificación de la especie humana, y generar mayor comprensión de nuestra naturaleza.
Loved it!
5 stars
Listened to the audio book. It's about 15 hours. It's so, so interesting. It's well written and easy to understand. It will have you looking at the world and yourself a little differently. The whole book is an exercise in thought. I really enjoyed it.
technicat reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Coffee shop BS, and I don't mean bookstore
2 stars
There's a bookstore/coffeeshop I used to go to where I once heard another customer expound in an initially impressive and interesting manner that started to sound like BS after a while. I bought this book at that store and had the same experience reading it. Initially, it's informative and entertaining in the style of science books I usually enjoy, but after a while the author just sounded like the coffee shop arguer who loves to hold forth and after a while you can't believe anything he says. After some passages of there-are-some-other-theories-but-I-just-don't-buy-it, and self contractory grand statements like all those authoritarian conquerors really thought they were doing good, and later, all those authoritarian conquerors, they lied, I started wondering if this guy is for real, checked wikipedia and saw despite the celebrity endorsements (thanks, Obama), there are a lot of academic criticisms, and that was enough for me. As with …
There's a bookstore/coffeeshop I used to go to where I once heard another customer expound in an initially impressive and interesting manner that started to sound like BS after a while. I bought this book at that store and had the same experience reading it. Initially, it's informative and entertaining in the style of science books I usually enjoy, but after a while the author just sounded like the coffee shop arguer who loves to hold forth and after a while you can't believe anything he says. After some passages of there-are-some-other-theories-but-I-just-don't-buy-it, and self contractory grand statements like all those authoritarian conquerors really thought they were doing good, and later, all those authoritarian conquerors, they lied, I started wondering if this guy is for real, checked wikipedia and saw despite the celebrity endorsements (thanks, Obama), there are a lot of academic criticisms, and that was enough for me. As with the coffee shop arguer, I just stopped paying attention and abandoned the book after a few chapters.
João-Luis reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Review of 'Sapiens' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
5/10
Review of 'Sapiens A brief Story of Human Kind' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Was an excellent book except for the part about the agricultural revolution
Matt Lehrer reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Fascinating ideas, unfortunate lack of evidence
3 stars
It's very convincing and I really appreciate the ideas and perspective on religion especially. I learned long after reading it about the complete disregard for evidence and accuracy.
papapep reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
La història mundial condensada
4 stars
Bon llibre que fa un repàs, evidentment succint, a la història de la humanitat des de l'inici fins, més o menys, ara, des d'un punt de vista molt crític al capitalisme, al liberalisme i a la forma de gestionar-ho tot que tenim els humans en general. Una molt bona, a estones densa, lectura.
Rekomenduoju
5 stars
Verrta dėmesio knyga apie žmonijos istoriją, kaip mes čia esam ir kodėl mes esam tokie kokie esam. Galima pamąstyti jei kam rūpi ka nors veikti žmonijos labui :)
flor reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Books as gifts become homework
2 stars
Unfortunately I didn't find any new to me insight in this book. Because of the size of the subject matter, it oversimplifies many things - perhaps I can use it to tell me what I need to learn more about because I didn't notice a simplification. It might be a good start for someone else to learn, at best. Furthermore, the author seems to have a bias that Buddhism has the Right Answers, which will never fail to annoy me.
Review of 'Sapiens A brief Story of Human Kind' on 'GoodReads'
5 stars
Amaze
Michael Goodine reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Review of 'Sapiens' on 'GoodReads'
4 stars
I can't really speak to the value of its scholarship, but this book zips along at a wonderful pace. It is extremely readable. That said, it does make a lot of superficial arguments. I wouldn't say that it is particularly deep.
I think this one is good fun for a high school senior thinking about starting a BA in History who wants an overview of potential study areas. The citations at the back of the book might also get them started down more specific paths.
Mester reviewed Sapiens. De animales a dioses by Yuval Noah Harari
Review of 'Sapiens. De animales a dioses' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Está genial
What a fantastic book.
5 stars
I can see why everyone from Bill Gates to Barack Obama was raving about it. It's an extremely compelling, accessible history - almost like a novelization - of humankind.
lijadora reviewed Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Review of 'Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
An interesting overview of the history of mankind. Learned a lot of surprising facts (i.e. the impact of humans (or actually "homo sapiens") on its environment is stupendous: the total wipeout of large marsupials in Australia total landscape changes, the wipeout of all other non-sapiens humans. The "bad deal" of the agricultural revolution. The role of stories to believe in in the development of sapiens (including, but not limited to religions), etc.etc). It's so much I'm afraid I'm going to forget a lot of them.
Has an impact on the way I view the world right now - hence 5 stars.
