Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind in Bangalore Open Library

Dec 24, 2016 Sameer rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The only reasonable parts of this book are the first few chapters and then first few pages of each chapter. Everything else is just sustained rants about the current state of civilization, disguised as scholarly opinion. Simplisitic, single-cause explanations for complex historical phenomena - from why Europeans colonized the world to how credit in the modern economy works - abound in this book.
The only redeeming aspect of this book is that it highlights the value of the historical perspective f ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Abhaga rated it it was amazing

I enjoyed reading it, the book seemed to loss track in places, specially in the last few chapters. There are several interesting ideas here but you need to be watchful because the pattern of the book is to present a theory and provide supporting evidence instead of present evidence and build a theory. As the author says in one place, a good historian can find precedence for everything.

The realization that Humans were just another animal with little impact on their environment for such a long tim ...more

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Feb 25, 2017 Amulya Arasinamakki rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, pop-science, 2017-reads

3.5 Stars

Sapiens is one of those books that wants to reach everyone. In its attempt to become a relevant piece of non-fiction book to anyone who picks up the book, irrespective of their academic background, it neither becomes a really extraordinary work nor a subpar treatise on the human history. It falls somewhere in between, and hence sometimes illuminates with a really convincing piece of arugument and other times, like an article from a magazine.

The earlier part of the book that deals with ...more

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Jul 25, 2018 Adarsh Rao rated it really liked it

Shelves: shans-book-recommendations

Mostly brilliant.

Enjoyed reading a significant portion of the book. The parts about the agricultural revolution were great. "We didn't domesticate wheat. It domesticated us." The parts on money and Capitalism were pretty insightful too. I remember reading about The Opium War in school but the way it was explained here will make it stick with me forever.

Did not like reading the parts on happiness. The final chapter, 'The End of Homo Sapiens', was hyped up for me and turned out to be rather under ...more

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