Join a book club that is reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind!

Louisville Becoming Human

Come join us for a non-fiction & literary fiction books oriented around understanding Human Behavior and Human Nature.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

#1 New York Times Bestseller • New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century • The Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama and Bill Gates

Official U.S. edition with full color illustrations throughout.

From renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

BUY THE BOOK

Published May 15, 2018

Average rating: 7.98

441 RATINGS

|

Community Reviews

jennimarie9
Jul 22, 2025
10/10 stars
Thought provoking, eye opening, engaging. The first third in particular is spectacular. This book felt like Philosophy, History, Biology and Sociology all went to an unpretentious pub to co-mingle over a cold beers with upbeat and lively conversation. It was like a little snack for a intellectually peckish mind. It raised burning curiosities that I never knew I had and discussed them with unique perspectives and interesting concepts. To think about history and humankind in the way that Harari pushes the reader to do is impressive and exciting. This book made me ponder and reconceptualize so many things - like the place of humans compared to other animals on earth, or the seemingly born-with belief that we humans are much better off now than generations before us. These unique perspectives will most certainly stay with me as a new paradigm and outlook on the world. I loved that Harari was exceptionally unbiased, or at least did an incredible job of appearing so to the reader. It seemed nearly agenda-less. Any agenda he may have had was hidden by his ability to appear impartial and able to articulate several sides of an argument. Even if/when he did favor certain ideologies (which I started to pick up on by the end), he wrote them without strong rhetoric and tended to state things plainly, evaluating all sides of a theory that may have contemporary moral controversy. He evaluated things in an unbiased non-politicized way. For example, he dissected many common conservative believes around religion, heterosexuality, and gender roles. But he provided similar de-construction of "progressive" beliefs like the scarcity of resources, benefits of progress, and the dissolution of family units. His ability to remain critically scholarly throughout was refreshing. For me it was a slower read than what I’ve been reading recently, but it’s also one of the rare books that I would plan (in fact crave) to read again one day.
Felinelo
Jan 24, 2025
8/10 stars
4.5 stars, everything I’ve suspected is confirmed in this book.
PackSunshine
Jan 05, 2025
8/10 stars
It starts out really strong, then gets a bit rambling, and presents some of his opinions as undisputed facts.
enderverse
Dec 05, 2024
5/10 stars
DNF
a c
Nov 18, 2024
6/10 stars
My rating is 3.5 ⭐. I had quite a few disagreements with Harari's opinion which was written here. Also sometimes I didn't understand which party is supported by Harari because of his confusing lines and just like he mentioned that it is not always possible to consider them purely good or bad.
Despite all of these I have to say that this book made me think about many instances more deeply? More like with a different perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed binging it. I also found some books that were at Harari's footnotes to be very interesting (more books on my tbr.. yay). I would love to reread the parts I've enjoyed especially the polytheism and the ethics of AI part

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.