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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Sapiens: Een kleine geschiedenis van de mensheid by Yuval Noah Harari
11 reviews
elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, and Genocide
Minor: Transphobia
rafacolog's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, War, Death, Animal cruelty, Racism, Genocide, and Misogyny
merilyn_ohtla's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
In his book "Sapiens," Yuval Noah Harari presents a historical timeline in which he sheds light on significant advancements achieved through various "revolutions" in human history, such as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Challenging established perspectives, he encourages fresh ideas about our modern way of life and argues against the notion of a natural way of living.
Harari specifically focuses on the Agricultural Revolution and its profound impact on not just diets, but also on family and community structures, which continues to influence our present era. While the surplus of food brought about opportunities for leisure and cultural development, the majority of people still carried the burden of laborious tasks.
Strong opinions are expressed by Harari with regards to money, culture, and capitalism. A notable quote from the book states, "Money is the only trust system created by humans that can bridge any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age, or sexual orientation."
Finally, Harari concludes by reflecting on the imminent revolution in human society and the irreversible changes we are causing to our environment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Racism, Rape, and Slavery
keishac13's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Colonisation, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Slavery, Misogyny, and War
kinddog2073's review against another edition
1.0
1 star because it's not entirely terribly written. But only 1 because the book is quite literally barely anything more than:
1. Wild ans unsubstantiated sociological-anthropological conjectures
2. Unapologetically but still annoyingly coy in its defense of imperialism
3. Imperialist and capitalist propaganda, sum and substance
It is a frustrating read written mostly (though not entirely) in a self-righteous and snivelling tone. Harari at once appears to either trust the reader to make their own critical conclusions about say, the validity of American justifiation for atomic war crimes, but not enough to stop himself from arguing in favour of (or at least against substantive criticisms of) inexusable genocidal empires that to this day continue to reap the benefits of and never pay the price or reparations for their centuries of crimes against humanity.
The wild conjectures at least are darkly funny, but the uncritical defense and optimism applied to "Western values" betrays a lot about the writers view of the world.
No wonder Obama, Bill Gates, and Jared Diamond praised this book.
1. Wild ans unsubstantiated sociological-anthropological conjectures
2. Unapologetically but still annoyingly coy in its defense of imperialism
3. Imperialist and capitalist propaganda, sum and substance
It is a frustrating read written mostly (though not entirely) in a self-righteous and snivelling tone. Harari at once appears to either trust the reader to make their own critical conclusions about say, the validity of American justifiation for atomic war crimes, but not enough to stop himself from arguing in favour of (or at least against substantive criticisms of) inexusable genocidal empires that to this day continue to reap the benefits of and never pay the price or reparations for their centuries of crimes against humanity.
The wild conjectures at least are darkly funny, but the uncritical defense and optimism applied to "Western values" betrays a lot about the writers view of the world.
No wonder Obama, Bill Gates, and Jared Diamond praised this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Xenophobia, Racism, and Violence
greebkit's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
I think the one thing this book does really well is emphasize that early man was little different than any other species of animal. There are some really interesting early history facts, but I do not kike that the author did not cite his sources. Instead, he provides his sources on a separate website you must go and find if you care to learn more or gain context.
I did not care for some real obvious misogyny and racism. It is very obvious that the author has issues with women and it is not healthy. After I read this book, I found out the author was gay and that does explain his obvious revulsion, but he offers up his biases and opinions as facts. There were a lot of points he was arguing that seemed like opinions rather than facts, but, because of the lack of citations, I have no idea if they have even the slightest basis in truth.
Still, there were several interesting topics and I would say it is an interesting read when he is sticking to actual history. I'd say it is a good starting point from which to go to more in-depth writings on the subject.
I did not care for some real obvious misogyny and racism. It is very obvious that the author has issues with women and it is not healthy. After I read this book, I found out the author was gay and that does explain his obvious revulsion, but he offers up his biases and opinions as facts. There were a lot of points he was arguing that seemed like opinions rather than facts, but, because of the lack of citations, I have no idea if they have even the slightest basis in truth.
Still, there were several interesting topics and I would say it is an interesting read when he is sticking to actual history. I'd say it is a good starting point from which to go to more in-depth writings on the subject.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Misogyny
burnt_milk's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Overall a really interesting read with a lot to say about our place in the world and especially what we deem "progress". However there was such a rudimentary view of gender even for 2014 - no acknowledgement of intersex people, and while there is some talk about gender roles and differentiating gender from sex, the author avoids talking about trans people, and clumsily uses "he or she" for every example.
I've read in other reviews that there are also a few factual inaccuracies in the text.
I've read in other reviews that there are also a few factual inaccuracies in the text.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, War, Death, Child death, Colonisation, and Racism
Moderate: Slavery
Minor: Fatphobia and Transphobia
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
Classism