Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (Book review )

1. Book Review-2
Name : Vrutant Dhruv
Roll No. :17BCL120
Subject : CS-II

2. Content
1.Heading
2.Introduction
3.Summary

3. Heading
• “YOU COULD NEVER CONVINCE A MONKEY TO GIVE YOU A
BANANA BYPROMISING HIM LIMIT- LESS BANANAS AFTER DEATH
IN MONKEY HEAV- EN”
• SAPIENS is a guide to becoming an expert on the entire history of the
human race as it re- views everything our species has been through
from ancient ancestors to our dominating place in the worldtoday.
• "HISTORY IS SOMETHING THAT VERY FEW PEOPLE HAVE BEEN
DOING WHILE EVERYONE ELSE WAS PLOUGHING FIELDS AND
CARRYING WATER BUCKETS”

4. Introduction
Harari's work situates its account of human history within a framework provided
by the natural sciences ,particularly evolutionary biology: he sees biology as
setting the limits of possibility for human activity, and sees culture as shaping
what happens within those bounds. The academic discipline of history is the
account of cultural change Harari surveys the history of humankind from the
evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first
century, focusing on Homo sapiens.

5. He divides the history of Sapiens into four major parts:
1.The Cognitive Revolution (c. 70,000 BCE, when Sapiens evolved imagination).
2.The Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000 BCE, the developmentof agriculture).
3.The unification of humankind (the gradual consolidation of human political
organisations towards one global empire).
3.The Scientific Revolution (c. 1500 CE, the emergence of objective science).
Harari's main argument is that Sapiens came to dominate the world because it is the
only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. He argues that prehistoric
Sapiens were a key cause of the extinction of other human species such as the
Neanderthals, along with numerous other megafauna. He further argues that the
ability of Sapiens to cooperate in large numbers arises from its unique capacity to
believe in things existing purely in the imagination, such as gods, nations, money,
and human rights.

6. He argues that these beliefs give rise to discrimination – whether that be racial,
sexual or political and it is potentially impossible to have a completely unbiased
society. Harari claims that all large-scale human cooperation systems – including
religions, political structures, trade networks, and legal institutions – owe their
emergence to Sapiens' distinctive cognitive capacity for fiction. Accordingly, Harari
regards money as a system of mutual trust and sees political and economic systems
as more or less identical with religions.

7. Summary
• Although not the first humans, Homo sapiens came to replace all other human
species on Earth.
• With the Cognitive Revolution, Homo sapiens acquired thinking and
Communication Skills that allowed them to con- quer the globe.
• The capacity for complex language gave Homo sapiens great advantages,
allowing them to spread and thrive.
• During the Agricultural Revolution, humans transformed from foragers into
farmers, which led to exponential popula- tion growth.
• In order to facilitate trade in large communities, humans invented money and
writing.

8. • The emergence of empires and religion pushed hu- mankind in the direction of
global unification.
• The scientific revolution modernized humanity, paving the way for new
technologies, imperialism and economic growth.
• Today’s global society, with its central belief in the pow- er of capitalism, is a
legacy of European imperialism.
• Humankind has never been more peaceful than in our globalized times.
• History is neither good nor bad, and its twists and turns are largely irrelevant to
our subjective happiness.
• In the future, Homo sapiens will transcend biological limits, eventually replacing
itself with an entire new species.