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A review by richardrbecker
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
4.0
Yuval Noah Harari comes close to delivering a comprehensive 5-star history on homo sapiens and falls just short in areas where he is least comfortable and the most speculative. However, none of these relatively minor setbacks dull the areas that are a resounding success.
In particular, Harari's assessment that sapiens' obsession with stories has led to its overwhelming success as a species (and may ultimately lead to its demise). He explains that only homo sapiens evolved to overlay a subjective reality on top of our objective reality, which moved humankind to form flexible cooperatives with one another on a scale that has never been matched by any other species.
It's information that I've admired for some time, even hard-baking its importance in the writing and communication classes that I've taught the university. Simply put, we pretend currency has value to simplify trade. We pretend our societies are better organized than others. We pretend specific values somehow make humankind better. And our ability to pretend these things is primarily dictated by someone's ability to tell a story that others will not only believe but respond to and share. More than any other concept, this is the heart of his thesis.
Not surprisingly then, Harari sometimes falls a bit short because he believes his own stories, and therefore dismisses other stories, including democratic republics, Christianity, and even agricultural successes. He also has rightly cherry picks some potential paths humans are considering with a kind of speculative delight that neglects some of his earlier criticisms.
There is one point he makes about the future that is undeniable. Humankind doesn't have to save nature because nature will be happy enough to move forward into the future without us.
Overall, his crisp writing, intuitive explanations, and clarity of thought make for one of the most compelling nonfiction reads I've come across in some time. I wish I read it sooner. Just don't mistake such enthusiasm for complete agreeance; the work still deserves a critical eye to fully appreciate that there is plenty about our place in the universe that we do not know.
In particular, Harari's assessment that sapiens' obsession with stories has led to its overwhelming success as a species (and may ultimately lead to its demise). He explains that only homo sapiens evolved to overlay a subjective reality on top of our objective reality, which moved humankind to form flexible cooperatives with one another on a scale that has never been matched by any other species.
It's information that I've admired for some time, even hard-baking its importance in the writing and communication classes that I've taught the university. Simply put, we pretend currency has value to simplify trade. We pretend our societies are better organized than others. We pretend specific values somehow make humankind better. And our ability to pretend these things is primarily dictated by someone's ability to tell a story that others will not only believe but respond to and share. More than any other concept, this is the heart of his thesis.
Not surprisingly then, Harari sometimes falls a bit short because he believes his own stories, and therefore dismisses other stories, including democratic republics, Christianity, and even agricultural successes. He also has rightly cherry picks some potential paths humans are considering with a kind of speculative delight that neglects some of his earlier criticisms.
There is one point he makes about the future that is undeniable. Humankind doesn't have to save nature because nature will be happy enough to move forward into the future without us.
Overall, his crisp writing, intuitive explanations, and clarity of thought make for one of the most compelling nonfiction reads I've come across in some time. I wish I read it sooner. Just don't mistake such enthusiasm for complete agreeance; the work still deserves a critical eye to fully appreciate that there is plenty about our place in the universe that we do not know.