I don't usually review non-fiction on this blog, but I thought I'd make an exception for this because it's a linear read (or rather, listen).
My daughter bought me Harari's Homo Deus for my birthday and it reminded me that I had Sapiens in my audio book library, still unread, so I thought I'd get to grips with it first. It's a fascinating history grouped thematically rather than chronologically, which means it jumps around quite a bit, but always logically. It gives a brief overview of homo sapiens' time on earth (a mere eyeblink in geological terms). It divides into sections and relates everything to revolutions. The sections are: The Cognitive Revolution, The Agricultural Revolution, The Scfientific Revolution with a side-trip into The Unification of Humankind.
I was particularly taken with the idea that in the Agrarian Revolution, humans did not domesticate wheat, but rather wheat domesticated nomadic humans, tempting them to stay in one camp for longer and longer periods of time when wheat was plentiful resulting in (eventually) permanent settlements and from then on humans had to sow seeds, tend, protect and harvest crops, and then protect the stored grain. This resulted in humans working round the clock, whereas, as hunter gatherers they had (mostly) a relatively easy life with much more 'leisure' time. The book follows humanity all the way through to the ability to end life as we know it, and/or to evolve into post-humans. It discusses happiness and posuits that we are probably no happier now than our hunter-gatherer ancestors were, which, of course, is pure supposition - as are some of his other theories. But this is still an engaging and thought provoking book, utterly devoid of the usual linear history of monarchs.
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jacey
