ASSIGNMENT: BOOK

REVIEW
Submitted to:

Prof. Md. Fazlur Rahman

Adjunct Faculty
Faculty of Business Studies
Bangladesh University of Professionals(BUP)

Date of
Submission:
18th June 2020
Submitted By
Abdullah Ashik Adnan – 19241053
BBA in Management Studies, Section A
Session :2018-19
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)
A book review for the book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah
Harari.
I can’t remember the last time I have read and finished a non-fiction book with such deep
attention and concentration. I would have never imagined that it was possible to combine
evolutionary anthropology, biology, psychology, physics, and history and write the history of
mankind in such an exciting way, almost like a spy-thriller. This book has really shaken my
world of thought to the very root, has totally changed how I view my ever-familiar world. In my
opinion a Bangla translation of this book really, really essential and every citizen of 18 and
above must read this terrific book.
In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari identifies three specific
"revolutions" which were central to the development of the human species. The first was the
Cognitive Revolution; taking place between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, it was responsible for
the development and use of language. The second was the Agricultural Revolution which saw
homo sapiens abandoning, approximately 12,000 years ago, traditional foraging in favor of
farming and permanent settlements. Finally, there is the Scientific Revolution, a much more
recent and ongoing phenomenon occurring within the last 500 years. The driving force behind
this Scientific Revolution was what Harari refers to as "the discovery of ignorance" - having
realized and acknowledged the limits of human understanding, intrepid sapiens embarked on a
quest for enlightenment.
From the outset, Harari seeks to establish the multifold forces that made Homo (‘man’) into
Homo sapiens (‘wise man’) – exploring the impact of a large brain, tool use, complex social
structures and more. He brings the picture up to date by drawing conclusions from mapping the
Neanderthal genome, which he thinks indicates that Sapiens did not merge with Neanderthals but
pretty much wiped them out. ‘Tolerance’ he says, ‘is not a Sapiens trademark’ (p19), setting the
scene for the sort of animal he will depict us to be.
Harari's main argument is that Sapiens came to dominate the world because it is the only animal
that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. He argues that prehistoric Sapiens were a key cause
of the extinction of other human species such as the Neanderthals, along with numerous other
megafaunas. He further argues that the ability of Sapiens to cooperate in large numbers arises
from its unique capacity to believe in things existing purely in the imagination, such as gods,
nations, money, and human rights. He argues that these beliefs give rise to discrimination –
whether that be racial, sexual or political and it is potentially impossible to have a completely
unbiased society. Harari claims that all large-scale human cooperation systems – including
religions, political structures, trade networks, and legal institutions – owe their emergence to
Sapiens' distinctive cognitive capacity for fiction. Accordingly, Harari regards money as a
system of mutual trust and sees political and economic systems as more or less identical with
religions.
The writer has presented some totally outrageous or crazy claims after a few pages throughout
the book, and about 100 or so claims has been presented quite beautifully and has been described
quite neatly from the brief history of human kind from the beginning of creation till the modern
day. How humans have invented various mythologies for their own survival, how belief in
common mythology have kept millions and millions of people under the same umbrella- I could
not have seen it had I not read this book. According to this book, the American declaration of
Independence is a mythology of this sort, the belief in which have kept all Americans under one
umbrella.
Let’s talk about a claim from the book’s last chapter:
“The future of human kind is not in evolutionary theory, but is inherent in intelligent design
theory.” When I was about to throw the book away after reading this right then I read the
explanation:
“Today, the 4-billion-year-old regime of natural selection is facing a completely different
challenge. In laboratories throughout the world, scientists are engineering living beings. They
break the laws of natural selection with impunity, unbridled even by an organism’s original
characteristics.
Eduardo Kac, a Brazilian bio-artist, decided in 2000 to create a new work of art: a fluorescent
green rabbit. Kac contacted a French laboratory and offered it a fee to engineer a radiant bunny
according to his specifications. The French scientists took a run-of-the mill white rabbit embryo,
implanted in its DNA a gene taken from a green fluorescent jellyfish, and voilà! One green
fluorescent rabbit for le monsieur. Kac named the rabbit Alba.”
Today it is happening to rabbits, for sheep it is already done, just like this one-day humans
themselves will design the next generation of humans.
It is a regret for me because of limited lifespan I won’t be able to witness these advancements of
science.
But this book gives a rough idea how, where, and how far humans have come.
To understand the pattern of human history and psychology this book is incomparable as a
starter.
The way this book will open one’s eyes by reading this will take one ahead very far!
So, in my opinion, this book is a must read!
Book Name: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Writer Name: Yuval Noah Harari