Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari, 2011
History Popular sciencePhilosophy
A historian retells the whole human story as one argument: that we conquered the world by learning to believe in things that aren't there. Harari's sweep from Stone Age to boardroom moves briskly, with witty aphorisms and a growing sense of unease about human power.
Feels like curiosity and unease. About power.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy big historical arguments that connect biology, money and belief in a few bold strokes. The book's confidence in one sweeping explanation can feel too neat, and readers who want careful caveats may bristle.
Why read it
It gives you a compact frame for thinking about why societies believe what they believe, and where those stories have taken us.
A page from the book
The thing you can't live without was once optional.
One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations. Once people get used to a certain luxury, they take it for granted. Then they begin to count on it. Finally, they reach a point where they can’t live without it. Yuval Noah Harari.Harari wrote the book after a colleague suggested his undergraduate world-history lectures might make a course. It began in Hebrew in 2011 and appeared in English in 2014.
Books that feel like this
More by Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus
Yuval Noah Harari, 2016
Harari turns from the history of Homo sapiens to its next century: algorithms, data and the godlike powers we are about to invent.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is Sapiens for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy big historical arguments that connect biology, money and belief in a few bold strokes. The book's confidence in one sweeping explanation can feel too neat, and readers who want careful caveats may bristle.
- What is Sapiens like?
- Harari's sweep from Stone Age to boardroom moves briskly, with witty aphorisms and a growing sense of unease about human power. Feels like curiosity and unease. About power.
- What should I read after Sapiens?
- If you liked Sapiens, try The Laws of Human Nature (Robert Greene), The Prince (Niccolò Machiavelli) and The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel).
A taste of the feed
He did not want a statue. He wanted a city that could live without him.
“I could give you many other reasons,” he concluded, “why you should feel confident in ultimate victory, if only you will make up your minds not to add to the empire while the war is in progress, and not to go out of your way to involve yourselves in new perils. What I fear is not the enemy’s strategy but our own mistakes.” The novelty of what he was proposing aroused great debate. Neither hawks nor doves were satisfied with his plan, but in the end, his reputation for wisdom carried the day and his strategy was approved. Several months later the fateful war began.
The Laws of Human Nature · Robert Greene
The expensive thing is rarely the thing you're actually buying.
Be nicer and less flashy. No one is impressed with your possessions as much as you are. You might think you want a fancy car or a nice watch. But what you probably want is respect and admiration. And you’re more likely to gain those things through kindness and humility than horsepower and chrome.
The Psychology of Money · Morgan Housel
The case for leaving your door open and your calendar empty.
Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don’t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops.
Trump · Donald Trump with Tony Schwartz
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed