Read the book “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind" online in full - Yuval Harari - MyBook
In memory of my father Shlomo Harari
Yuval Noah Harari
A Brief History of Humankind
Copyright © Yuval Noah Harari 2011
This edition is published by arrangement with
The Deborah Harris Agency and Synopsis Literary Agency.
Transfer from English Love Amount
Part one
Cognitive revolution
The rock paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the south of France are about 30 thousand years old. These works of art were created by people who looked, thought and spoke like us
Chapter 1
An inconspicuous animal
About 13.5 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space appeared: the Big Bang. Physics deals with the history of these fundamental phenomena of the Universe.
After 300 thousand years from the beginning of their existence, matter and energy began to form complex complexes with each other - atoms, and they began to be combined into molecules. Chemistry deals with the history of atoms, molecules and their interactions.
Approximately 3.8 billion years ago on planet Earth, certain molecules combined into large and complex structures - organisms. Biology studies the history of organic life.
About 70 thousand years ago, organisms belonging to the species Homo sapiens, gave birth to something even more sophisticated - we call it culture. And further fate human cultures interested in the science of history itself.
The course of human history was determined by three major revolutions. It began with the cognitive revolution, 70 thousand years ago. The agricultural revolution that occurred 12 thousand years ago significantly accelerated progress. Scientific revolution- it is only 500 years old - it is quite capable of putting an end to history and laying the foundation for something different, unprecedented. This book tells how the three revolutions affected people and other living beings - the faithful companions of people.
* * *
People existed long before the beginning of history. Animals very similar to modern humans first appeared 2.5 million years ago, but for countless generations they did not stand out among the billions of other creatures with which they shared their habitats.
On a walk through East Africa a couple of million years ago, you might have come across a very familiar scene: tender mothers clutching their babies to their breasts, carefree children playing in the mud, ardent youth outraged by the dictates of convention, and tired old people asking to be left alone; machos beat themselves in the chest with their fists, trying to impress the local beauty, wise matriarchs look at what is happening and know that they have already seen all this more than once. Those ancient people knew how to play and love, things developed between them strong relationships, they fought for power and status - but chimpanzees, baboons, and elephants behaved the same way. People were no different from animals. No one, and first of all the people themselves, could have predicted that their descendants would walk on the Moon, split the atom, unravel the genetic code and create chronicles. This must be remembered when we discuss prehistoric man: he was the most common animal and influenced ecological environment no more influential than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.
Biologists classify organisms into genera and species. Animals of the same species can copulate with each other, producing fertile offspring. Horses and donkeys share a close common ancestor and many common features, however, they show almost no mutual sexual interest. They can be forced to have sexual intercourse, and as a result, offspring will appear - mules, but the offspring will be infertile. This means that horses and donkeys belong to different species. In contrast, a bulldog and a spaniel may not look alike, but they mate willingly, and their offspring will be able to breed with other dogs and produce the next generation of puppies. Bulldogs and spaniels therefore belong to the same species - they are dogs.
Species originating from common ancestor, unite into a genus (genus). Lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars - different types sort of Panthera. Biologists give living organisms double Latin names, the first name denotes the genus, the second the species. For example, lions - Panthera leo , that is, the view leo sort of Panthera. In all likelihood, any reader of this book - Homo sapiens, that is, belongs to the species sapiens(reasonable) kind Homo(Human).
Genera, in turn, are united into families - for example: felines (lions, cheetahs, domestic cats), canines (wolves, foxes, jackals) or elephants (elephants, mammoths, mastodons). All members of the family can trace their ancestry back to a certain ancestor. Thus, all cats, from the tiny house kitten to the ferocious lion, can be traced back to a single ancestor who lived approximately 25 million years ago.
AND Homo sapiens also belongs to a special family, although for a long time and stubbornly he kept this fact in the strictest confidence. Homo sapiens he preferred to imagine himself as the only one of his kind, separated from other animals - an orphan, without sisters and brothers, without step- or cousins, and most importantly, without parents. But this is a misconception. Like it or not, we are members of a big noisy family great monkeys (great apes). Among our living living relatives are chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons, of which chimpanzees are closest to us. Just 6 million years ago, an ape gave birth to two daughters. One became the ancestor of all living chimpanzees, the second is great-great-great, and so on, our grandmother.
Book:"Sapiens. Short story humanity"
Original name: Sapiens. A Brief History of Humankind
Out: 2016
Publisher:"Sinbad"
Language: translation from English
about the author
Yuval Noah Harari (born February 24, 1976) is a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1993 to 1998 he studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, specializing in the history of the Middle Ages and the history of wars. He received his PhD in 2002 from Jesus College, Oxford. From 2003 to 2005, he conducted research with funds from the Rothschild Charitable Foundation Yad Hanadiv in Israel. Currently, Harari’s area of interest is The World History and macro-historical processes.
About the book
“No, we didn’t domesticate wheat. She is the one who domesticated us.” Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity."
Israeli historian Yuval Harari's ambitious project to write a concise, popular and comprehensive history of all humanity has immediately drawn comparisons to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Of course, the similarity of names is provided by the author. At the beginning of the book, Harari talks about global challenges. It is the job of physics to describe what happened from the Big Bang to the formation of atoms and molecules; after that, chemistry comes into play; with the appearance of the first living beings, biology comes into play; and with the advent of culture, history comes into play.
The problem is that it is impossible to write the history of humanity in the same way as to write the history of proteins, atoms or the universe - too little general patterns, there are no equations and experiments are almost impossible. Harari reminds himself of this throughout the first third of the book. The story begins with the appearance of the Homo species on Earth - all its species, from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens. For Harari, it is very important to convey to the reader that we are not alone: the only child in the family, sapiens is actually an orphan who has lost brothers, some of whom even lived at the same time as him. But at the end of the first third of the book, Harari comes to a discussion of cultural phenomena and how they govern human life. And here there is no room for reservations: the author cannot resist striking but controversial conclusions.
What happened to sapiens from hunter-gatherer to Neil Armstrong and (Harari never forgets this) seamstress worker in a Chinese sweatshop? The author takes the reader through a series of key, in his opinion, events in history: the cultural revolution (not the one with the Red Guards, but after the invention of language), the agricultural revolution, the birth of capitalism.
The author is categorical; the habit of placing references to other people's work at the end of the book, rather than at the bottom of the page, makes it sound even harsher. The author’s political beliefs (Harari is a convinced socialist) and his attitude to everything from financial instruments before liberalism. In addition, the entire book is imbued with nostalgia for the times of gathering and hunting: a short working day, an abundant and varied diet, and property equality for Harari are much more attractive than unevenly distributed benefits modern civilization. You can read it with great interest, but with extreme caution: Harari goes beyond his professional competence dozens of times, delving into the areas of ethology, psychology and macroeconomics.
The key problem of the book is the connection between human biology and its behavior as a species. More precisely, the absence of such a connection. If individual people, the author writes, still show their animal origins, then in groups of more than 150 people they act as completely different creatures.
Wondering about last pages question about the future of humanity, Harari writes: “What could be more dangerous than disappointed, irresponsible gods who have not realized what they want?” Coming with the author to the problem of life after the onset of the technological singularity, it is important for the reader to remember: this problem concerns not only Yuval Noah Harari.
About the publication
The book was published in the Big Ideas series by the Sinbad publishing house.
Yuval Noah Harari (February 24, 1976, Kiryat Ata, Israel) - Israeli military historian and medievalist, professor Faculty of History Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Animal rights activist, vegan.
From 1993 to 1998 he studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, studying medieval and military history. Afterwards he studied at Jesus College, Oxford, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in 2002 and returned to Israel, and from 2003 to 2005 he was engaged in postdoctoral studies under the auspices of charitable foundation Yad Hanadiv.
Since 2004, his books have been published regularly and are very popular, including among mass readers and non-professional historians. Currently, Harari is working on transnational history and macro-historical processes.
Harari is an animal rights activist, a vegan, a practitioner of Vipassana meditation taught to him by Sri Satya Narayan Goenka himself, and is also an assistant teacher in the art.
Books (2)
Homo Deus. A Brief History of the Future
In his first book, which became a worldwide sensation, Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity,” Yuval Harari told how Homo sapiens came to dominate our planet. "Homo Deus" is a kind of continuation of the theme - it is an attempt to look into the future.
What happens when Google and Facebook know our tastes, personal preferences, and political preferences better than we do? What will billions of people do, displaced by computers from the labor market and creating a new, useless class? How will religions perceive genetic engineering? What will be the consequences of the transfer of powers and competencies from living people to network algorithms? What should a person do to protect the planet from his own destructive power?..
The main thing now, Harari believes, is to realize that we are at a crossroads and to understand where the paths stretching out before us lead. We cannot stop the course of history, but we can choose the direction of movement.
Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity
One hundred thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was one of at least six human species living on this planet—an unremarkable animal that played no more role in the ecosystem than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish. But about seventy thousand years ago, a mysterious change in the cognitive abilities of Homo sapiens turned him into a master of the planet and an ecosystem nightmare.
How did Homo sapiens manage to conquer the world? What happened to other human species? When and why did money, states and religion appear? How did empires rise and fall? Why did almost all societies place women lower than men? How did science and capitalism become the dominant beliefs of the modern era? Have people become happier over time? What future awaits us?
Yuval Harari shows how history has shaped human society and the reality around him. His book traces the connection between the events of the past and the problems of our time and forces the reader to reconsider all established ideas about the world around him.
Reader comments
Guest/ 01/16/2019 Dear Harari!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your brilliant monographs. Vivid, informative and fascinating, such works are always re-read with interest.
Guest/ 01/11/2019 Harari’s monographs captivate you from the first lines: brilliant style, bright humor, erudition, intelligence of the author - it’s impossible to put down! Both books are avid reads, thank you very much!
Igor/ 12/11/2018 Shocked! The book is written beautifully literary language! I read it savoring it like a good wine. I'm starting the second book. Wow..! It's breathtaking! Thank you Dr. Harari!
arina/ 07/10/2018 Lovers of audiobooks have the opportunity to listen to this wonderful book in the “gramophone” application.
Vladimir Onoprienko/ 04/05/2018 Thank you, dear Dr. Harari, for the full text of your book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” which is available for free download on your official Website. This availability for download on your official website is also very important for casual readers: they will not remain casual after reading your powerful, magnificent book. I have been working on the topic of global society for quite a long time and quite thoroughly, issues collective intelligence and noospherism, but many things are now understood differently after reading your book. I will be happy to read and study the second book, “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.” I hope to see it for download on your official website as well. Thank you.
Vladimir/ 04/04/2018 Dear Dr. Harari, you wrote in your post that the second book “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” is also available in Russian. However, I did not find either a download link or the text itself. For some reason... Help me download.
Thank you/
Sergey/ 03/18/2018 I really liked the summary of human history based on modern research, looked at many things in a new way. Thank you.
Vladimir/ 02/20/2018 Dear Harari!
Thanks for the book.
Interesting look.
True, so far I have only read the introductory passage.
Harari/ 01/27/2018 Hello Ilana!
I apologize for not answering you for so long - my Russian did not allow me to communicate freely and I had to improve it a little. My second book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, is also available in Russian. I will be grateful if you read it and share your opinion with me here. I am very pleased that you liked my book, thank you for your kind words! I wish you success,
Ilna/ 07/18/2017 Hello Noah I Ilana live in Israel from Kiryat Gat. I bought your book History of Humanity, I really, really liked it, there are simply no words. I would like to know if the second book will be published in Russian and how I can get it. I wish I could read it too. What do you say? I am very grateful for the book that I read, very accessible and easy, even though History Thank you......
Book “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity” is a real multidimensional encyclopedia that tells about such a complex creature as man. Professor Yuval Harari created a clearly structured system of various sciences - biology, anthropology, economics, history and many others, placing Homo Sapiens at the center. What was his appearance on Earth like? Why did he turn out to be the master of the planet and the destroyer of nature? What role did money, religion, science and others play? social aspects in personality development modern man? Has a person become happier by getting closer to the benefits of civilization? What future awaits us all? You will receive comprehensive answers to these and other global questions if you decide to read this amazing book to the end.
Yuval Harari shares the whole story human civilization into three periods: cognitive (man learned to communicate and think), agricultural (agriculture appeared) and scientific (intensive development of machines and technologies). Each of these revolutions raised society a step higher, giving many new discoveries, but taking something in return. Man is now in the midst of a scientific revolution. What can society lead to? modern look thinking? The author makes predictions about what awaits us in the near and distant future, and a number of valuable recommendations of a social and ethical nature on how to avoid possible disasters and tragedies.
Book “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity” is written in a popular science style, it easy language and understandable, so even schoolchildren will find it interesting to read. Yuval Harari presents the reader with many interesting facts, arranging all the information in a logical chain. After reading this large-scale work, you begin to understand the meaning of the various processes occurring in modern world- economic, political, social, philosophical, religious, moral and ethical, you see the connection between history and modernity.
This work motivates us to delve even deeper into the research. human nature. When reading a book, it is as if you are discussing with the author, analyzing his scientific data and drawing your own conclusions. You won’t be able to “gallop” through the pages of the encyclopedia - here you need to reflect and compare, study the diagrams and pictures with which Yuval Harari supplemented the text. It is interesting to trace the evolution of man from the era of the Neanderthals, who appeared on the planet more than three billion years ago, to modern society, going with the author on a grand journey through time and space, learning about all key events universal scale, which at one time changed the vector of human development.
For those who want to switch from science to thinking about the meaning of life and its right direction, there is an excellent “bonus” chapter - the author’s philosophical reflections on human happiness.
On our literary website you can download the book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari. A Brief History of Humanity" for free in formats suitable for different devices - epub, fb2, txt, rtf. Do you like to read books and always keep up with new releases? We have big choice books of various genres: classics, modern fiction, literature on psychology and children's publications. In addition, we offer interesting and educational articles for aspiring writers and all those who want to learn how to write beautifully. Each of our visitors will be able to find something useful and exciting for themselves.
Year: 2011
Publisher: Sinbad Publishing House
Genres: Foreign applied and popular science literature, Foreign educational literature
Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity
In memory of my father Shlomo Harari
Part one
Cognitive revolution
The rock paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the south of France are about 30 thousand years old. These works of art were created by people who looked, thought and spoke like us
An inconspicuous animal
About 13.5 billion years ago, matter, energy, time and space appeared: the Big Bang occurred. Physics deals with the history of these fundamental phenomena of the Universe.
After 300 thousand years from the beginning of their existence, matter and energy began to form complex complexes with each other - atoms, and they began to be combined into molecules. Chemistry deals with the history of atoms, molecules and their interactions.
Approximately 3.8 billion years ago on planet Earth, certain molecules combined into large and complex structures - organisms. Biology studies the history of organic life.
About 70 thousand years ago, organisms belonging to the species Homo sapiens, gave birth to something even more sophisticated - we call it culture. And the science of history itself is interested in the further fate of human cultures.
The course of human history was determined by three major revolutions. It began with the cognitive revolution, 70 thousand years ago. The agricultural revolution that occurred 12 thousand years ago significantly accelerated progress. The scientific revolution - it is only 500 years old - is quite capable of ending history and laying the foundation for something different, unprecedented. This book tells how the three revolutions affected people and other living beings - the faithful companions of people.
* * *
People existed long before the beginning of history. Animals very similar to modern humans first appeared 2.5 million years ago, but for countless generations they did not stand out among the billions of other creatures with which they shared their habitats.
On a walk through East Africa a couple of million years ago, you might have come across a very familiar scene: tender mothers clutching their babies to their breasts, carefree children playing in the mud, ardent youth outraged by the dictates of convention, and tired old people asking to be left alone; machos beat themselves in the chest with their fists, trying to impress the local beauty, wise matriarchs look at what is happening and know that they have already seen all this more than once. Those ancient people knew how to play and love, strong relationships developed between them, they fought for power and status - but chimpanzees, baboons, and elephants behaved the same way. People were no different from animals. No one, and first of all the people themselves, could have predicted that their descendants would walk on the Moon, split the atom, unravel the genetic code and create chronicles. This must be remembered when we discuss prehistoric man: he was a very common animal and had no more impact on the ecological environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.
Biologists classify organisms into genera and species. Animals of the same species can copulate with each other, producing fertile offspring. Horses and donkeys share a close common ancestor and many common traits, but they show little or no mutual sexual interest. They can be forced to have sexual intercourse, and as a result, offspring will appear - mules, but the offspring will be infertile. This means that horses and donkeys belong to different species. In contrast, a bulldog and a spaniel may not look alike, but they mate willingly, and their offspring will be able to breed with other dogs and produce the next generation of puppies. Bulldogs and spaniels therefore belong to the same species - they are dogs.
Species descended from a common ancestor are grouped into a genus (genus). Lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars are different species of the genus Panthera. Biologists give double Latin names to living organisms, the first name denoting the genus, the second denoting the species. For example, lions - Panthera leo, that is, the view leo sort of Panthera. In all likelihood, any reader of this book - Homo sapiens, that is, belongs to the species sapiens(reasonable) kind Homo(Human).
Genera, in turn, are united into families - for example: felines (lions, cheetahs, domestic cats), canines (wolves, foxes, jackals) or elephants (elephants, mammoths, mastodons). All members of the family can trace their ancestry back to a certain ancestor. Thus, all cats, from the tiny house kitten to the ferocious lion, can be traced back to a single ancestor who lived approximately 25 million years ago.
AND Homo sapiens also belongs to a special family, although for a long time and stubbornly he kept this fact in the strictest confidence. Homo sapiens he preferred to imagine himself as the only one of his kind, separated from other animals - an orphan, without sisters and brothers, without step- or cousins, and most importantly, without parents. But this is a misconception. Like it or not, we are members of a large, noisy family of great apes (great apes). Among our living living relatives are chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons, of which chimpanzees are closest to us. Just 6 million years ago, an ape gave birth to two daughters. One became the ancestor of all living chimpanzees, the second is great-great-great, and so on, our grandmother.
Skeletons in the closet
Homo sapiens hides a darker secret: not only do we have many wild relatives, but we once had siblings. We have given ourselves the name “man,” but at one time the genus “man” included several species. People are animals of the kind Homo- appeared in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago as a branch of an older genus of monkeys Australopithecus, I mean " southern monkeys" And two million years ago, some ancient men and women left their homeland and went to wander across vast spaces North Africa, Europe and Asia, where they settled. Because to survive in snowy forests Northern Europe different qualities were required than for existence in the stuffy jungles of Indonesia, human populations developed in different directions, and as a result different species appeared, for each of which scientists came up with a pompous Latin name.
Has gained a foothold in Europe and Western Asia Homo neanderthalensis(Neander Valley Man), commonly referred to simply as "Neanderthal". Neanderthals, denser and more muscular build than modern people, successfully adapted to the cold climate of Europe ice age. Lived on the island of Java Homo soloensis(a man from the Solo Valley), more adapted to life in the tropics. On another Indonesian island, small island Flores, creatures settled that the popular press now tends to compare to hobbits. These dwarfs armed with spears, no more than a meter tall, weighed an average of 25 kilograms, but you cannot deny their courage. They even hunted local elephants - however, the elephants here were also dwarf. Explored the open spaces of Asia Homo erectus(homo erectus), and this one sustainable appearance humans lasted there for more than 1.5 million years.
In 2010, another lost brother returned from the depths of oblivion: during excavations of the Denisova Cave in Siberia, a petrified phalanx of a finger was discovered. Genetic analysis proved that the finger belongs to a previously unknown human species, which was named accordingly Denisovan man, Homo denisova. Who knows how many more forgotten relatives are waiting to be discovered - in other caves, on islands, in other climatic zones!
While these species of humans were evolving in Europe and Asia, evolution continued in East Africa. The Cradle of Humankind nurtured more and more new species, including Homo rudolfensis(Lake Rudolph Man) Homo ergaster(working person) and ultimately our own species, which we, without false modesty, dubbed Homo sapiens(reasonable person).
Some species of people turned out to be large, others were dwarfs. Among them were fearless hunters and timid gatherers plant food. Some lived exclusively within one island, while others explored entire continents. But these were all representatives of the clan Homo, in other words - humanity.
There is a popular misconception that all these species replaced each other as successors: Ergaster gives rise to erectus, erectus gives rise to Neanderthal, and you and I descend from Neanderthal. The linear model creates the false impression that there was only one human species on Earth at any given time and that all ancient species are outdated models of modern humans.
Our closest relatives (modern tentative reconstruction, from left to right): Homo rudolfensis ( East Africa, 2 million years ago); Homo erectus (Asia, 2 million - 50 thousand years ago) and Homo neanderthalensis (Europe and Western Asia, 400 - 30 thousand years ago). These are all human beings
In fact, almost two million years - approximately until the 8th millennium BC. e. - several human species existed at the same time. Actually, why not? Many species of foxes, bears and pigs live now. A hundred thousand years ago, at least six species of humans walked the Earth. The exception to the rule (the exception that casts an ominous shadow of suspicion on us) is precisely the current exclusivity, and not the varied past. We will soon be convinced that Homo sapiens there are reasons to suppress any memory of extinct brethren.
