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alghesny's review against another edition
4.0
Captivating, beautifully written, very informative, and quite an important read. I thoroughly enjoyed it
nahlaaly56's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. It's not a light listen by any means but it's both interesting and informative. The author basically takes you from the big bang to the end of humanity, cruising through biology, history, zoology, sociology, economics, and politics in a way that doesn't get boring or dull. His language is engaging and makes everything interesting.
kozy44's review against another edition
4.0
History of human evolution through a number of time periods, ages, etc. It’s an interesting book with lots of great information and anecdotes. The book can be dry in some portions.
kshane1298's review against another edition
5.0
Educational, It talks about... well practically the history of mankind right from the stone age, and he progresses till the modern age. In between he talks about how the cavemen discover fire, about the illusion of agriculture being better than hunting, then he moves on to the unity of mankind using empires and religion, the transformation of money from a barter system to what it is today, capitalism, socialism, and the scientific revolution, the change from material wealth to human capital, the importance of human capital, the overflow of information and many more.
Most of the things he talks about, I've heard about them in bits and pieces elsewhere. This book narrates it in a chronological order. Glad to have had read this book.
Most of the things he talks about, I've heard about them in bits and pieces elsewhere. This book narrates it in a chronological order. Glad to have had read this book.
walskishere's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Witty, but dense. This put me into a reading slump. I ended up borrowing the audiobook alongside the physical so someone would read it to me while I followed along. Sometimes I feel the booked lacked some context on some points the author was trying to make. Overall, interesting.
rgaldamez's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
It was exactly what I expected when I picked it up.
thelostwayne's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.5
This took me a long time to listen through since Spotify sucks and limits your audiobook listening time, but such an informative dive into humanity and scientifically how we function. Learned a ton and had many “Huh” moments. Definitely recommend.
sheisnovel's review against another edition
1.0
There was no reason for this book. It should be titled "A Brief Opinion of Humankind" since most of it is Harari's personal opinion. It's embarrassing an academic could put this to print and have this marketed as non-fiction. How this made it to the best seller's list is beyond me.
I couldn't tell if he was upset at being human or that he mixed every social science theory and put it into a blender to see what was going to come out on the other end.
It seems he really enjoyed Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" (Harari uses the phrase "imagined order"). A must read for any anthropologist or political theorist, but nation building is Anderson's term for an imagined community, and is known to have fault in not considering communities based on collective identity (ethnicity, gender, class). The emphasis for Anderson lays with language/communication which can disseminate the masses, thus leading to nation building. Totally missed here with Harari.
He writes:
How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined. You always insist that the order sustaining society is an objective reality created by the great gods or by the laws of nature.
*sigh*
He also writes:
a. The imagined order is embedded in the material world.
b. The imagined order shapes our desires.
c. The imagined order is inter-subjective.
*sigh*
I tried to find the credit to Anderson also, but alas I didn't see it either.
I challenge someone to write the debunking version of this, because it's calling for it.
I'm tired. This book exhausted and did not enlightened me and
I couldn't tell if he was upset at being human or that he mixed every social science theory and put it into a blender to see what was going to come out on the other end.
It seems he really enjoyed Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities" (Harari uses the phrase "imagined order"). A must read for any anthropologist or political theorist, but nation building is Anderson's term for an imagined community, and is known to have fault in not considering communities based on collective identity (ethnicity, gender, class). The emphasis for Anderson lays with language/communication which can disseminate the masses, thus leading to nation building. Totally missed here with Harari.
He writes:
How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined. You always insist that the order sustaining society is an objective reality created by the great gods or by the laws of nature.
*sigh*
He also writes:
a. The imagined order is embedded in the material world.
b. The imagined order shapes our desires.
c. The imagined order is inter-subjective.
*sigh*
I tried to find the credit to Anderson also, but alas I didn't see it either.
I challenge someone to write the debunking version of this, because it's calling for it.
I'm tired. This book exhausted and did not enlightened me and