New York Times Readers Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century
The tenth anniversary edition of the internationally bestselling phenomenon that cemented Yuval Noah Harari as one of the most prominent historians of our timefeaturing a new afterword from the author.
One hundred thousand 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, Professor Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radicaland sometimes devastatingbreakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology, and economics, and incorporating full-color illustrations throughout the text, he explores the origin of our species and how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Can we ever free our behavior from the legacy of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?
Bold, wide-ranging, and provocative, this work of big history integrates history and science to challenge everything we thought we knew about human evolution: our thoughts, our actions, our heritageand our future.
This tenth anniversary edition is an invitation to explore the story of us: a brief history of humankind that challenges everything we thought we knew about being human.
- The Three Great Revolutions: Discover how the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions shap
