Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

It feels sometimes as if you were reading the chapter about humans in Douglas Adams fictional “hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy” - I say this as a compliment.

Sapiens sets itself the hard task of giving an account of all of Human evolution in under 500 pages. Unfortunately this really is not enough space to do the subject justice, and instead we get an idiosyncratic account of Harari considers to be important points.

The book starts out strongly with a good discussion of prehistory, from the early hominids through to the stone age. From here we get presentation of the agricultural revolution where the author has an axe to grind, as he think that agriculture was a trap and possibly the worst thing that ever happened to humanity.

From here on out we presented with rather sweeping accounts of the highlights of human history, but there is not space for any nuance in the presentation, we simple get the authors account with no real indication when is presenting the accepted view vs him just putting forward his own thoughts. Harari has a tendency to put forward exaggerated or very speculative accounts without making it clear to the reader that this is the case. The impact of this goes from merely annoying if you happen to already know something about that subject to potentially misleading if the reader was going in with no background on the subject. More importantly this undermines your confidence in his presentations of areas you are not as familiar with.

This is not to say the book is a write off. The book does start out strongly and is a fun read if you are prepared to take what the author is saying with a pinch of salt.

This book is the perspective we all need.

This book reads like a smoky, late night dorm room conversation on “how culture is just a myth” or some similarly thought provoking topic. Not that culture isn't a myth, but explaining this in a history book requires a more rigorous explanation than Sapiens offers in its breezy narrative.

It's a fun read but demands the reader take breathtaking leaps in the causal chain to move through 200,000 years of history and anthropology in 400 pages. Stepping us from A to Z means making sure B, C, J, O, and X are all accurate and scientifically sound. This book doesn't do that. Sapiens asks us to imagine what early farmers were thinking and extrapolate theories of why the current social order is shaped the way it is. It asks us to cherry pick single examples from civilizations thousands of years ago to explain all of Homo Sapien motivation. Worse yet, the author intersperses ethical judgement throughout, leaving me to wonder how much of the research is motivated by his own worldview.

If you are along for Harari's ride then I can imagine the view is fantastic. If you want to make a stop along the way and ask a few questions, there's no time.