Sapiens


***1/2/*****                                                                                                                                 History

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian. In this epic story of the species Homo Sapiens, he takes up the task of analysing the three principle revolutions that shaped its history viz. ‘Cognitive revolution that kick-started history about 70,000 years ago, Agricultural revolution that sped it up about 12,000 years ago and the scientific revolution (that) got underway only about 500 years ago but may well end history…’ in his own words. Harari offers some ingenious comments and analysis on these epoch-changing events in our history. According to him the greatest attribute that cognitive revolution gave our species was ability to believe collectively in imagined myths. This led to invention of religion, belief in nationhood, rule of law. These imaginary concepts catalysed cooperation amongst very large group of individuals enabling development of powerful communities. His analysis of agricultural revolution is iconoclastic too. He does not eulogize agriculture as one of the greatest revolutions of human history that revved up a prosperity drive for its practitioners. According to him agriculture is responsible for many ills that plague human beings today. I will not spoil the fun of future readers of this book by describing these out-of-box thoughts of Harari. He sees a direction that human history is following over the millennia. And this is the unification of the world gradually into a global village, where diversity on macro level is coalescing to produce a culturally less varied world. Religion, Money and Empires, he says have laid the foundation for this unification.

Harari’s most forceful, convincing and nonconformist arguments in the book, in my view, are on the subject of Scientific Revolution. His new ideas open up clogged alleys of mind and force one to meditate concepts that were alien to mind till now. In the end, Harari delivers a beautifully written, thought- provoking, and a profound essay on Happiness. He talks about what constitute a happy mind, what are the ways people adopt in their pursuit of happiness and is happiness real or a mere illusion? He finds Buddhist explanation of human suffering most convincing.

I have read some books on human evolution, world history, scientific revolution and human mind. This background reading helped me to understand the subjects Harari discusses in the book. But I found his arguments and conclusions completely different and refreshing. Anyone interested in human beings, their history and their place in cosmos must not miss this book.

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