NATIONAL BESTSELLER This second volume of Sapiens: A Graphic History the full-color graphic
adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari's #1 New York Times bestseller focuses on the Agricultural
Revolution?when humans fell into a trap we've yet to escape: working harder and harder with
diminishing returns. What if humanity's major woes?war plague famine and
inequality?originated 12 000 years ago when Homo sapiens converted from nomads to settlers in
pursuit of the fantasy of productivity and efficiency? What if by seeking to control plants and
animals humans ended up being controlled by kings priests and Kafkaesque bureaucracy? Volume
2 of Sapiens: A Graphic History?The Pillars of Civilization explores a crucial chapter in human
development: the Agricultural Revolution. This is the story of how wheat took over the world
how an unlikely marriage between a god and a bureaucrat created the first empires and how war
plague famine and inequality became an intractable feature of the human condition. But it's
not all doom and gloom with this book's cast of entertaining characters and colorful humorous
scenes. Yuval Zoe Prof. Saraswati Cindy and Bill (now farmers) Detective Lopez and Dr.
Fiction all introduced in Volume 1 once again travel the length and breadth of human history
this time investigating the impact the Agricultural Revolution has had on our species. The
cunning Mephisto shows them how to ensnare humans King Hammurabi lays down the law and
Confucius explains harmonious society. The origins of modern farming are introduced through
Elizabethan tragedy the changing fortunes of domesticated plants and animals are tracked in
the columns of the Daily Business News the story of urbanization is portrayed as a travel
brochure offering discount journeys to ancient Babylon and China and the history of
inequality unfolds in a superhero detective story with guest appearances by historical and
cultural personalities throughout such as Thomas Jefferson Scarlett O'Hara Margaret Thatcher
and John Lennon. Sapiens: A Graphic History Volume 2 is a radical witty and colorful
retelling of the story of humankind for adults and young adults and can be read on its own or
in sequence with Volume I.
