• Derin Joy

Harari gives us an impeccable thriller account through the sapiens. It takes you on a timeline
of history with all the lessons which constitute the central theme of the book. The account
begins with Cognitive Revolution and ends with Scientific Revolution. Harari takes four
major heads which are further sub categorised into various sub heads. The timeline is
presented from 13.8 billion years back to the present time.
From the smallest matter to nuclear weapons to super humans, the author has articulated the
idea and the lessons extremely well. Although at various instances Harari makes the point of
how ignorant man is to everything around him. Each chapter has time again concluded this
point of ignorance. The narrative beautifully portrays connect of human beings to its past and
present and future endeavours. The writing style has an excellent potency to attract a huge
community of readers and non readers as well. My favourite portions in the book are
History’s biggest fraud, the law of religion and the marriage of Science & Empire. Harari
often compares two segments of the past to the present which can be seen in almost every
chapter of the book.
Sapiens try to capture and brings up some proactive ideologies about existence, ideas, culture,
and language to manifest a bigger perspective. For instance Capitalism is seen as the biggest
and most successful religion ever invented or Agricultural revolution is the biggest fraud
done in the history. Sapiens also highlights sensitive issues such as the institution of
marriage and significance of religion. It makes one wonder and introspect the origin of
beliefs we surround ourselves and invest too much into. Further talking about the accuracy of
the facts, Harari has made a sincere effort to rely on the most accurate facts and data
available. Despite that there has been some factual errors spotted.
Although the author exaggerates at various instances about mannerisms and ethics of humans
which is quite overwhelming in itself. Overall the book is an adventure through a lot of
timelines. One must also remember that what Harari has to present to us is just a small
fraction of the universe. Usually people are not interested in reading about history but the
correlation that Harari brings forth in each and every part of the book is what makes sapiens a
collective read.
I thoroughly enjoyed the read, it gave broader perspective about man and the ecology and the
genesis of everything. The book has a nonchalant energy associated to it and I would
recommend everyone to read this masterpiece.