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קיצור תולדות האנושות / Ḳitsur Toldot Ha-enoshut (2011)

by Yuval Noah Harari(Favorite Author)

3.23 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Kinneret, Zamora-Bitan, Dvir - Publishing House Ltd.

review 1: The book discusses the three great anthropological revolutions - the Cognitive Revolution where we became clever (for reasons, it seems, no-one is as yet able to explain), the Agricultural Revolution where we adopted a sedentary lifestyle based on farming and which led to the first civilisations, and the Scientific Revolution where we have begun to reject superstition and seek to base our understanding of things on empirical observation. As a single piece of work on the history of Homo Sapiens, this is a first rate piece of work. That said, I think some of the reviews that I've read on the book heap a bit too much praise - the early chapters on the emergence of Homo Sapiens are intriguing, especially those parts discussing our relationships (a lot of it necessarily hypot... morehetical) with other species of the Homo genus (whom we likely killed off) - but there is an eccentric feel to some of the discussions further in, particularly when the author moves from anthropology into the realm of pure culture (chapters which emerge after the initial introductions to the Agricultural Revolution). It seems to be around here that we start to see some overtones of a kind of post-modern discourse - although, in some ways, that could be forgiven as some of the subjects tackled are flaky by nature.Towards the end, the book asks just as many questions as it seeks to answer, particulary the last chapter concerning our future as a species. What I liked about the author's general approach is a complete and utter absence of ideology. Always a good sign. That said, this book didn't blow me away as much as I hoped/expected it to based on some of the comments I was seeing. Daniel Kahnman's Thinking, Fast and Slow remains, for me anyway, the ultimate journey into the nature of ourselves, albeit it approaches the subject from an entirely different angle.
review 2: "Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa". Yuval Noah Hariri describes in an easy and clear style the big events that transformed us into the masters of the entire planet - and a terror of the ecosystem. It is engaging and at times entertaining - who would have thought that gossip is a virtue and that contradictions created culture. It is not only about the history of us as a species, but poses important questions about where we might be heading to. less

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