Review of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Research output: Contribution to journalBook/Film/Article review

Abstract

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind By Yuval Noah HARARI
London: Vintage, Penguin Random House, 2014. 456 pp. ISBN: 978-0099590088 (Hardback)

Humankind’s perennial “progress” toward re-innovating modes of luxury and convenience beyond the necessities of subsistence is a prominent feature of human nature or more precisely the dominant characteristic for one of the six human species, Homo sapiens. No other branch of species determined the continued existence of native flora and fauna or progressively laid waste to
their environment. These consequences are associated with the process of improving the human condition. Yuval Harari’s Sapiens traces the casualties of this natural inclination toward constructing the “Imagined Order” and, in particular, the human creation of governing systems such as political economy and religion in civil society. In synthesizing transitional moments across the long history or “Big Picture” of human existence, this timely and provocative book skilfully bridges conventions in academic and commercial histories of its kind by threading a broad range of interdisciplinary evidence and speculative suggestions into a fascinating and highly readable narrative
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)265-275
JournalAsian Review of World Histories
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2015

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