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Writer's pictureAneesh J R

SAPIENS - A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND (Yuval Noah Harari) BOOK REVIEW

Updated: Sep 6, 2020


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I was quite surprised , when I read the reviews of this book before reading the book because, it was quite amazing to me how a typical history book can grab this much attention among the readers.But only after going through the book ,I can understand that this book can be widely categorised under a history book, scientific journal, a self help book, and a reference for future developments.The best book that I had came across in the area of human development and world history.

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth.Today there is just one, 'Homo Sapiens'. The book is entirely about how our species succeed in the battle of dominance.The book is starting with the presentation of known facts about the species in the Homo genus which has been acquired from the archeological remaining collected from various part of the world. Then it explains in detail how the species co-existed in the planet and how "Sapiens" evolved as the most successful species which then started to dominate the planet.

While describing the evolutionary process , Mr Yuval is changing the historical concepts that we thought were the real success mantras for development of societies and empires. One most important aspect that the author was successful in proving was that " The Agriculture revolution was history's biggest fraud, we will be prompted to change the way we were thinking about our history.The author is successful in stating that not only biology and physics were the light holders in the development of humankind but also the thinking patters and the ability for believing in unknown and virtual facts were the key for the natural selection the Homo sapiens. The collective working ability of the Homo sapiens differs from author animals due these un- biological differences.

While coming to the advanced stages on development ie, unification of humankind through empires, societies, countries, kingdom, religions and in the period of The scientific revolution , this book is presenting before us some new reasons that we are not heard of earlier but are quite logical and simple to understand.The changes in the species are not only through natural selection, but also due to the out comings of the behavioural patterns of this species.

In the last chapters, the author is taking as to our future which is fascinating us. In that part the author has changed the book into some sort of self help book, that enables us to think whether our development is good for our existence. He is presenting that the developments is going to end the "Homo sapiens " Species and is going to develop some super humans.He is telling that humans are now growing themselves as Gods with the advancement of scientific research and is ending with the note. "Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?"

The presenting style of the book is like story telling , which will force us to complete the book as fast us we can. A history book having 498 pages can't be made more interesting than this one.The facts that the author adds for approving his theory is from our daily lives and is helping to make us understand the facts on a single read.The book can also be considered as reference book of thinking patterns of humankind during the various stages of evolution process, and will help a lot in nurturing our thinking process too.The presenting style of the author is not settling on a conclusion whether the decision on a particular stage is right or wrong, He is just presenting the both sides of the problem and solutions and asking us to believe what we want. In the end chapters the book is asking so many questions about the present development of the human species and making us to think where we actually want to go and what we actually want to acheive. 

5 out of 5 star book

Price: Rs 499/-                

Pages: 499

About the author:Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and a professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the international bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

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