Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari | Book Reflections

mavis mook
May 15, 2021
3 min read

Book Summary

Sapiens is a book that details the rise of the human species, or rather Sapiens, as Harari likes to call us. In it, he chronicles how homo sapiens managed to wipe out other homo/human species like Neanderthals and eventually populates the Earth. The Agricultural Revolution is when Sapiens learned how to produce food in larger quantities and domesticate animals. As history progresses, the Scientific Revolution leads Sapiens from different continents to be unified. Trade and globalisation ensue, creating one interconnected human race.

Thoughts and Reflections

This book has been on my reading list for years! Some of you might not know this, but Harari actually planned this as the first book in a trilogy. The other two books are Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow and 21 Lessons for The 21st Century. Since finding out about it 3 years ago, I've wanted to borrow it from NLB, but it was always either already borrowed or the reservation list was too long. This was why I ended up reading these two books before reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind!

Normally, when people read/write about history, the subject matter is on relatively recent history (things that happened in the past 1000 years). Very rarely do authors write a book that extends to the Stone Age! I believe this is why Sapiens gained such widespread popularity initially. Humans have this intrinsic desire to learn more, especially about our common history that we know so little about.

Just wanted to add an interesting note: while reading 21 Lessons for The 21st Century, Harari said that he wrote Sapiens for his fellow Israelites. One of the above 21 Lessons is You Are Not The Centre Of The World. Harari was critical of the history curriculum taught in Israeli schools. According to Harari, the curriculum largely consists of Israeli history only, which could lead students to think that Israel was extremely influential in creating the current world order. Of course, every culture's unique history should be remembered, but all cultures are not equal in their influence. Harari wrote this book so that the Israelite public would have a greater understanding of world history.

The first part of Sapiens that stood out to me was when Harari wrote about how in the Stone Age, many species of homo/human existed together at the same time. This was a very clear example of how evolution does not progress linearly. I used to have the misconception that as one group of the homo species evolved, another would become extinct. I never thought it possible that multiple "variations" of homo could exist at the same time together. This was quite an interesting observation, which gave credence to Harari's argument that it was the rise of homo sapiens that caused the demise of other homo species.

Another intriguing argument was Harari's stance that it is quite obvious humankind has always been moving towards unification rather than polarisation. Since the Agricultural Revolution and with the advent of trade, countries and continents have become more interdependent on each other. This can be quite hard to believe right now, especially with the growing trend of isolationism and increased divisions in society.

Although this was quite an all-encompassing read on human history, I do concur with critics that Sapiens is not particularly well-written as a scholarly publication. There are many parts of the book that have been sensationalised and glossed over Sapiens has earned its spot on the bestsellers list because it was written in an engaging, not because it was a scholarly publication.