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Reviews tagging 'Genocide'
Sapiens: Een kleine geschiedenis van de mensheid by Yuval Noah Harari
16 reviews
jlautry's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This was a book about humankind. From inception to current day. It discusses every aspect of being human that you could think of. From brain and physical development and social structures, to war, money, and politics. I think I learned more from this book than I did from any history or social studies class in school.
The first part of the book really sucked me in. This surprised me because I have a hard time reading and staying interested in non-fiction books. But parts 1, 2, and 3 really held my interest. The author discusses multiple theories about humankind throughout the book and talks about the likelihood of each, which I thought was interesting.
The book lost me towards the end when I got into the Industrial Revolution and Politics. Those topics just don’t seem to interest me as much. So, full disclosure, I mostly skimmed most of the last couple of parts of the book. Something I didn’t like about the book is it made assumptions about the reader’s knowledge level of certain people and historical events. I had to do a fair amount of Googling who this was and what that was.
If you are religious in any way (I am), know that the author is not. However, he does go into the history of many religions and the contributions (good and bad) that came from it. I particularly liked this part and found it really interesting to learn more about other spiritual beliefs other than my own.
This has nothing to do with the content of the book, but I think it’s worth mentioning. This book is REALLY heavy. Like, physically heavy. This was probably my least favorite thing about reading the book was my arms and wrists would literally start hurting if I sat reading it too long.
Overall, for a non-fiction book, I really liked it and I learned a lot of history that I didn’t know before. I think it’s a worthwhile read!
The first part of the book really sucked me in. This surprised me because I have a hard time reading and staying interested in non-fiction books. But parts 1, 2, and 3 really held my interest. The author discusses multiple theories about humankind throughout the book and talks about the likelihood of each, which I thought was interesting.
The book lost me towards the end when I got into the Industrial Revolution and Politics. Those topics just don’t seem to interest me as much. So, full disclosure, I mostly skimmed most of the last couple of parts of the book. Something I didn’t like about the book is it made assumptions about the reader’s knowledge level of certain people and historical events. I had to do a fair amount of Googling who this was and what that was.
If you are religious in any way (I am), know that the author is not. However, he does go into the history of many religions and the contributions (good and bad) that came from it. I particularly liked this part and found it really interesting to learn more about other spiritual beliefs other than my own.
This has nothing to do with the content of the book, but I think it’s worth mentioning. This book is REALLY heavy. Like, physically heavy. This was probably my least favorite thing about reading the book was my arms and wrists would literally start hurting if I sat reading it too long.
Overall, for a non-fiction book, I really liked it and I learned a lot of history that I didn’t know before. I think it’s a worthwhile read!
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Genocide, Slavery, and War
lanid's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Genocide, Racism, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and War
yellow_star's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.0
This is a book by an asshole. Warning: author has lots of prejudices, strongly classist.
It should be a good overview of humanity's history, and parts of it are that, but there's constant butt ins from the author being an r/iamverysmart type prick. One example of many: "[humans developed more and more specialized niches] including niches for imbeciles like water carriers or factory workers." What kind of classist asshole writes that because someone is in the bottom of a class organization and can only get low paying jobs they themselves are a brain dead idiot?!? Who tries to make a fact based argument that classism and other types of prejudice are how superior genes work out and arrange themselves in a society besides a prejudiced jerk? That's just one example, the author gleefully throws in many other attacks against many other groups and ideologies that don't really connect with or build on the academic content of the book and are mainly just there to pretend there's a factual basis for being an asshole. There are a few parts where the author just innocently covers prejudice as it pertains to human history which is totally a valid thing to have a lot of in a book about human history, but they still add in their personal hateful opinions where it adds nothing and isn't pertinent to what is being learned. I still gave it 2 stars because there's some actual facts in there and the book is well organized but I bet that's to the credit of the editor more than this jerk author. What kind of person tries to pretend there are factual arguments supporting imperialism and classism and racism as helping our species thrive? The author does not differentiate between established facts and his own personal theories, I would guess that is because of an oversized ego thinking all of his own personal theories and opinions are equal to established facts. Maybe all the good reviews of this popular book are just people being blinded by the illusion of facts supporting prejudice in this to not see it's just the author's own barely disguised hatefulness? I've never read such a bad popular book. There have to be other books that are a summary of human history with a more reliable narrator though.
It should be a good overview of humanity's history, and parts of it are that, but there's constant butt ins from the author being an r/iamverysmart type prick. One example of many: "[humans developed more and more specialized niches] including niches for imbeciles like water carriers or factory workers." What kind of classist asshole writes that because someone is in the bottom of a class organization and can only get low paying jobs they themselves are a brain dead idiot?!? Who tries to make a fact based argument that classism and other types of prejudice are how superior genes work out and arrange themselves in a society besides a prejudiced jerk? That's just one example, the author gleefully throws in many other attacks against many other groups and ideologies that don't really connect with or build on the academic content of the book and are mainly just there to pretend there's a factual basis for being an asshole. There are a few parts where the author just innocently covers prejudice as it pertains to human history which is totally a valid thing to have a lot of in a book about human history, but they still add in their personal hateful opinions where it adds nothing and isn't pertinent to what is being learned. I still gave it 2 stars because there's some actual facts in there and the book is well organized but I bet that's to the credit of the editor more than this jerk author. What kind of person tries to pretend there are factual arguments supporting imperialism and classism and racism as helping our species thrive? The author does not differentiate between established facts and his own personal theories, I would guess that is because of an oversized ego thinking all of his own personal theories and opinions are equal to established facts. Maybe all the good reviews of this popular book are just people being blinded by the illusion of facts supporting prejudice in this to not see it's just the author's own barely disguised hatefulness? I've never read such a bad popular book. There have to be other books that are a summary of human history with a more reliable narrator though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide
Classismkarenaerts's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, and Trafficking
spasqual's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
I kind of had to force myself through the third quarter of this book. It did get interesting again in the last quarter, but the first half is definitely the most colorful.
I think Harari’s speculations toward the end will soon become outdated, but it could still be amusing to reflect on for future readers
I think Harari’s speculations toward the end will soon become outdated, but it could still be amusing to reflect on for future readers
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Genocide, and Animal cruelty
backatthelibrary's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Suicide, and Violence
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