One hundred thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was one of at least six species of humans living on this planet — a hardly remarkable animal that played a role in the ecosystem no greater than gorillas, fireflies, or jellyfish. But around seventy thousand years ago, a mysterious change in Homo sapiens’ cognitive abilities turned it into the master of the planet and the nightmare of the ecosystem. How did a wise person conquer the world? What happened to the other human species? When and why did money, states, and religion appear? How did empires arise and collapse? Why did almost all societies place women below men? How did science and capitalism become the dominant faiths of the modern era? Have people become happier over time? What future awaits us?
Yuval Noah Harari shows how the course of history shaped human society and the reality around it. His book traces the connection between events of the past and the problems of the present, prompting the reader to reconsider all the established ideas about the world.
Contents:
First part. The Cognitive Revolution
Chapter 1. An animal with nothing special about it
Chapter 2. The Tree of Knowledge
Chapter 3. One day in the life of Adam and Eve
Chapter 4. The Flood
Second part. The Agricultural Revolution
Chapter 5. The greatest deception in history
Chapter 6. Building pyramids
Chapter 7. Memory overload
Chapter 8. History is unfair
Third part. The Unification of Humankind
Chapter 9. The vector of history
Chapter 10. The smell of money
Chapter 11. The imperial dream
Chapter 12. The law of faith
Chapter 13. The secret of success
Fourth part. The Scientific Revolution
Chapter 14. The discovery of ignorance
Chapter 15. The alliance of science and power
Chapter 16. The credo of capitalism
Chapter 17. Gears of industry
Chapter 18. Permanent revolution
Chapter 19. And they lived happily ever after
Chapter 20. The end of Homo sapiens
Afterword. Animals that became gods