One hundred thousand years ago at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is
just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did
our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe
in gods nations and human rights to trust money books and laws and to be enslaved by
bureaucracy timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to
come? In Sapiens Professor Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history from the very
first humans to walk the earth to the radical?and sometimes devastating?breakthroughs of the
Cognitive Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology
anthropology paleontology and economics and incorporating full-color illustrations
throughout the text he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies
the animals and plants around us and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history
has unfolded? Can we ever free our behavior from the legacy of our ancestors? And what if
anything can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold wide-ranging and
provocative Sapiens integrates history and science to challenge everything we thought we knew
about being human: our thoughts our actions our heritage...and our future.
