2.97/5

A “historical” account of the human race. Historical is in quotes because although this is a fantastic and well-researched book, there are definitely moments where Eurocentrism seeps through. There are numerous instances of justification/rationalization for the horrors committed by capitalism under the guise of business: slavery, deception, banking fraud; and most importantly, the conquest of the Caribbean islands and the Americas. These are natural byproducts of capitalism, yet again Harari talks about these byproducts as necessary evils. As if it the battle between capitalism versus communism persists. At least it’s not communism! This is redundant. From a historical perspective, it is absurd to set up economic arguments exclusively between capitalism and communism. Other hunter-gatherer systems are briefly discussed in the early chapters but dismissed once we evolve into the capitalist model. We are always led to believe, from political leaders to intellectuals to athletes to historians to philosophers, that the alternative to capitalism is communism and vice versa; this is simply not true.

Another example occurs in the explications regarding European conquests: Cortés's “discovery” of the Mayan empire, and Pizzaro’s “discovery” of the Incan empire are discussed at length. Pizarro, taking notes from Cortés, executed the last Incan emperor by strangling him with his bare hands.

Cortés and Pizzaro systematically contributed to splitting both empires from within. They ignored the rules of engagement and committed genocides worthy of filling entire classrooms (we never learn about this in school); yet the term discovery is itself ambiguous. How could we have discovered a place which clearly already existed with its own political, economical, and social systems and hierarchies? This is evidence of our ignorance, yet the admittance of this ignorance, for some unknown reason, costs us our humanity as our “conquering” mentality is made something to be proud of, to boast of, to brag about; the notion that the “savages” had no interest in conquest because they lacked that coveted “European curiosity” is astounding.

Cortés was equally ignorant about the Aztecs, but he and his men held significant advantages over their adversaries. While the Aztecs had no experience to prepare them for the arrival of these strange-looking and foul-smelling aliens, the Spaniards knew that the earth was full of unknown human realms, and no one had greater expertise in invading alien lands and dealing with situations about which they were utterly ignorant. For the modern European conqueror, like the modern European scientist, plunging into the unknown was exhilarating.

Nevertheless, if you understand that there is an embedded bias towards European/Western culture, especially in the realms of economics and politics, and proceed to read the book with a critical eye — as you should with anything you consume — the book is fantastic magnum opus by a great scholar. The research is well thought out, and most of the studies alluded to are sourced in the back. The sections on genomes and gene-editing is fascinating and attempts to guess where the research will head in the next two decades. Perhaps this is discussed in more advanced detail in the next book: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.