One hundred thousand years ago, at least six "human" species inhabited the Earth. Today, there is only one: Homo Sapiens, which is us. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? How did our foraging ancestors end up building cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and human rights? To trust money, laws, and books? To become enslaved to bureaucracies, timelines, and consumer models? And what will our world look like in the millennia to come?
Professor Yuval Noah Harari traverses the entire human history, from the first humans who walked the Earth to the radical—and sometimes destructive—innovations of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on a vast range of sciences (biology and genetics, paleontology and history, anthropology, sociology, and economics), he offers original, unexpected, and often entertaining answers to the most critical questions:
Why were humans able to gather in astonishingly large populations while other primate groups do not exceed one hundred and fifty individuals? Because, he says, our talent for gossip allows us to form networks in societies that would be too large for personal relationships among all their members, while the "imaginary realities" we create and accept—such as money, religion, and Limited Liability Companies—keep us in order.
Who cultivated whom, humans or wheat? Wheat… Although the concepts are unusual and complex, Harari's deft prose and biting, subversive humor make it work with material that could lend itself to academic dullness. After all, the book often returns to another question: Does all this progress make our lives easier and us happier? The answer might disappoint you.
