Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Summary

Harari surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century. He divides human history into four major parts: the Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the unification of humanity, and the Scientific Revolution.[1] Harari's main argument is that Homo sapiens dominates the world because it is the only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. He argues that prehistoric sapiens may have committed a massive genocide, leading other homo species such as the Neanderthals into extinction. He further argues that Homo sapiens can cooperate flexibly in large numbers, because it has a unique ability to believe in things existing purely in its own imagination, such as gods, nations, money and human rights. Harari claims that all large scale human cooperation systems – including religions, political structures, trade networks and legal institutions – are ultimately based on fiction.

Harari's other salient arguments are that money is a system of mutual trust; that political and economic systems are actually religions rather than economic theories or ideologies; that the agricultural revolution started as a promise of luxury but ended as a trap that made peoples' lives worse than before; that empire has been the most successful political system of the last 2,000 years; that money, empires and religions are the powers that are unifying the world; that the treatment of domesticated animals is among the worst crimes in history; that people today are not significantly happier than in past eras; and that humans are currently in the process of upgrading themselves into gods.

Reception

Translated into more than 30 languages, the book won the National Library of China's Wenjin Book Award for 2015.

Reviewing the book in The Washington Post, evolutionary anthropologist Avi Tuschman pointed out several problems with the book, but nonetheless wrote that "Harari’s book is important reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens." Reviewing the book in The Guardian, philosopher Galen Strawson concluded that, "Much of Sapiens is extremely interesting, and it is often well expressed. As one reads on, however, the attractive features of the book are overwhelmed by carelessness, exaggeration and sensationalism." Science journalist Charles C. Mann concluded in The Wall Street Journal that, "There’s a whiff of dorm-room bull sessions about the author’s stimulating but often unsourced assertions." A review by a mindfulness scholar showed a number of oversimplifications in Harari's approach to Buddhism.