Book Review:- SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind by Bookish Adventures

Book Review:- SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind

Book Review by Bookish Adventures

How I Came Across This Book:-

     History is always the subject that fascinates me the most. Be it Indian history, world history, modern history, medieval history or ancient history. I love learning about history very much. That’s why when I first came to know about the book ‘Sapiens’ and its background, I instantly wishlist it on the Amazon shopping app and waited for the sale so that I could buy it.

Front cover of the copy of Sapiens I own

     Sapiens is the most popular non-fiction historical book of the current generation, Not only many booktubers and influencers but also political leaders and celebrities are talking about this book. So this is again one more reason for me to pick this book and find out myself why this book is so top-rated by those who are top players in their field. I bought this book on 13^th January 2022 as a box set of 3 books from Yuval Noah Harari at the price of INR 537. The other two books which came with the box set are ‘Homo Deus’ and ‘21 Lessons For The 21^st Century’.

About This Book:-

     This book is easily in the top 5 books I have ever read so far. Sapiens is the book that will tell you why you are what you are and how you behave as you do. What kind of journey did our ancestors have around this globe? And how we are not the product of our choice but the choices of our ancestors? This book is a gem in my view and with a mix of anthropology and history this book delivers you a mine knowledge of a lifetime.

     Sapiens is written by Yuval Noah Harari, who has a PhD in history from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem specializing in history. This book is filled with so much knowledge that you will indeed feel overwhelmed by just reading 15-20 pages a day.

     The author of this book also made bold statements by labelling farming as the biggest fraud, How do animals of no significance become God? How humans are becoming more powerful so much so that they are nothing less than a God? This book is filled with many more topics and instances from our history that will completely change our way of seeing this world. This book is divided into 4 parts. Each part progresses with humanity and incidents that change the course of the evolution of sapiens.

Back cover of the copy of Sapiens I own

Part 1- The Cognitive Revolution:- In this part, the author tells us about how we mammals were nothing in the early days of this world and how we sapiens rose to significance by overcoming the difficulties and defeating great beasts of the early Stone Age.

     This part also tells us about our lesser-known 6 homo siblings and tells us that how we are the only among the 7 species of the Homo family which were able to survive in this world. The author in this part also discusses how we Homo Sapiens are the reason behind the destruction of mega faunas and floras from this earth. How our actions affected the lives of other living beings on this planet.

Part 2- The Agricultural Revolution:- This part focuses on the transition period of humanity from a group of foragers to cultivators. In this part, the author claims that farming is the biggest fraud in the history of humanity. The author tells us how becoming settlers from foragers costs us more than the gain, the author labels agriculture a trap that makes us dependent on it for our survival.

     In this part author tells us that it was the period when hierarchies were developed, Kings and kingdoms came into existence, and taxes were introduced along with laws and codes of living. The author believes that these were the basis for racism, discrimination and sexism all over the world.

Index(i) of the Sapiens Book

Index(ii) of the Sapiens Book

Part 3- The Unification of Humankind:- This part of the book demonstrates how the steps taken by the humans after becoming settlers show their colours. In this part, we came to know how different settlements started having their own culture, which resulted in creating differences and these differences were then strengthened by the birth of religion.

     This part also tells us how money was invented and how a vision of the global world started becoming a reality. This part is all about how money and globalization framed the way to modern trading in the very early era of Humanity. The author believes that this whole greed for money and control over trade routes gives birth to imperialism, which becomes a boon and curse at the same time for different groups of humanity.

Part 4- The Scientific Revolution:- In this section of the book writer tells us about how science made us invincible in every prospect of life and how science forges a world which we are familiar with, in this part author makes us realise that science gave us the power which can be harnessed to challenge views and measure things which once looks impossible.

     In this section, we get to know how science was used for empire in trade, conquest, military etc. This is the part of the book where we get to know that Europeans didn’t conquer the world because they were more advanced, but because they simply wanted to dominate the world and they used resources around them to do so.

     In this final section of the book, we get to know about how capitalism and the Industrial Revolution changed the course of life and fulfilled the need for an empire like never before.

Best Things About This Book:-

·        This book certainly changes your worldview and makes you see things around you with a different vision.

·        This book is filled with so much knowledge that you will feel overwhelmed by the content of this book multiple times.

·        This book is very well written and you can hardly close this book because it is addictive, especially for lovers of history and anthropology.

·        This book will help you understand some of the very basic human nature and habits through a deep dive into the ocean of the evolution of the human race.

·        This book is certainly one of those books that one should read every year to keep himself aware of the existence and relevance of things around him.

Drawbacks of This Book:-

·        The font size of the book is small and reading this book for a long time may put strain on your eyes.

·        This book is not for the beginner and at times hard to understand as well for the readers.

·        Most of the examples and evidence of the theories in this book are related to Western and Middle Eastern empires like the Romans, the Assyrians, the Mesopotamians etc. with China as the only significant Eastern civilization, which makes us think that may be Eastern world does not match with the theories given in this book by the author.

·        This book is not for everyone but for the seekers of knowledge.

Conclusion:- You may agree or disagree with many points and theories of this book but one thing is sure, you can’t ignore what the author is trying to tell you. This book was my best read of 2022 and I think I will try to read it again this year (2023) as soon as possible. I will also suggest this book to everyone and will place this book in the section “Read at least once in a Lifetime”. So I will give this book a magnificent 95 out of 100 and label it as a must-read.

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