Review: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is not at all what I was expecting. Instead of an analysis or description of early Homo sapiens and an explanation of recent DNA findings, Harari focuses on a brief (under 400 pages) historical overview of human history. The first few chapters are interesting and discuss the early ancestors of humans with little evidence to back up Harari's conclusions, which is excusable since there is not much concrete information available; however, Harari continues with this approach throughout the entire book, even in sections where there is information available - much of which would contradict his findings and is probably the reason he did not bother with actual facts. Perhaps this was on purpose since Sapiens is intended for a general audience. Whatever the case, such generalizations rob the reader of an accurate representation of the historical periods and to those who lived through them. What is contained within the pages of Sapiens is not the whole story and should not be confused as such.

Yuval Noah Harari, a lecturer who earned a Ph.D. in history from Oxford, does not have a clear understanding of how to write a scholarly book. There is no clear focus and each chapter is full of commentary and ideological statements that cannot be backed up with evidence. This problem could be because Sapiens does not contain a thesis. The reader has no idea why the book has been written until they read the last chapter, where cyborgs and artificial life is briefly commented on with philosophical overtones.

Surprisingly, Harari does not seem to understand that history itself does not cause or allow for things to happen. Neither can the Agriculture Revolution or any other philosophy or idea. Sapiens is full of phrases like "The Agricultural Revolution enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind..." (79) and "Culture tends to argue.." (147), which any scholar, especially a historian, knows is not correct. It should be "the people of the Agricultural Revolution..." or "the [evidence] shows that their culture is...". The Agricultural Revolution can do nothing and culture cannot argue. These flaws in writing could easily be dismissed if the book was not full of such phrases.
I would not recommend this book to anyone with a serious curiosity about history and early humans, and I'm quite perplexed as to why Sapiens made the New York Times' list and has received so many stellar reviews. The book should be placed on the fiction shelf.

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