{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Book","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/","name":"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind","shortTitle":"Sapiens","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yuval Noah Harari"},"isbn":"9780062316097","numberOfPages":21,"wordCount":2717,"timeRequired":"PT11M","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:49:15Z","dateModified":"2025-12-17T09:35:26Z","publisher":{"@id":"https://readstacks.com/#organization","@type":"Organization","name":"Read Stacks"},"workExample":[{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-1-an-animal-of-no-significance-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-1-an-animal-of-no-significance-2/","name":"An Animal of No Significance","position":1,"wordCount":123,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Long before kingdoms and scriptures, there were only physics, chemistry, and biology: matter forming, life emerging, species mutating, and dying without meaning. History begins only when biology collides with imagination. Homo sapiens arrived late and ordinary.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-2-the-tree-of-knowledge-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-2-the-tree-of-knowledge-2/","name":"The Tree of Knowledge","position":2,"wordCount":131,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Sapiens did not win because its muscles were stronger or its tools were sharper. The advantage was cognitive: a mind that could juggle many relationships and hold shared fictions in common. The world stayed physical, but social reality became negotiable.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-3-a-day-in-the-life-of-adam-and-eve-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-3-a-day-in-the-life-of-adam-and-eve-2/","name":"A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve","position":3,"wordCount":119,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"After the cognitive leap, there was never a single “natural” way to be human. Foragers lived in many arrangements, and culture kept rewriting what felt normal. Compared with later farmers, hunter gatherers often enjoyed variety: shifting diets, flexible schedules, broad skills, and intimate knowledge of landscapes.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-4-the-flood-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-4-the-flood-2/","name":"The Flood","position":4,"wordCount":125,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"When sapiens expanded into new regions, the landscape did not merely gain a clever ape. It lost creatures that had survived ice ages and volcanoes for millions of years. Australia and the Americas show a recurring pattern: large animals disappear soon after humans arrive, and…","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-5-historys-biggest-fraud-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-5-historys-biggest-fraud-2/","name":"History’s Biggest Fraud","position":5,"wordCount":131,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"The agricultural shift is often praised as progress, but it can be read as a trap. Sapiens gained more calories, yet many individuals worked harder, ate worse, and lived with tighter constraints. Domestication flipped the usual story: humans did not only tame wheat; wheat tamed humans.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-6-building-pyramids-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-6-building-pyramids-2/","name":"Building Pyramids","position":6,"wordCount":144,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Large societies require a shared order, and the shared order is imagined. Not imaginary in the sense of “false,” but in the sense that it exists inside collective belief, not inside trees or rivers. Hierarchies, castes, and roles are stabilized by stories people repeat until they feel like nature.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-7-memory-overload-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-7-memory-overload-2/","name":"Memory Overload","position":7,"wordCount":139,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"As villages became towns and towns became empires, human memory hit a ceiling. No one mind could track thousands of debts, laws, and shipments with precision. Writing begins as accounting: marks that remember for us.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-8-there-is-no-justice-in-history-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-8-there-is-no-justice-in-history-2/","name":"There Is No Justice in History","position":8,"wordCount":126,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"If imagined orders are powerful, they also produce imagined hierarchies. Class, gender, and race can be treated as natural facts, even when they are cultural lines reinforced by law, custom, and violence. Once inequality is built into institutions, it keeps reproducing itself.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-9-the-arrow-of-history-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-9-the-arrow-of-history-2/","name":"The Arrow of History","position":9,"wordCount":128,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Cultures change, collide, and sometimes fuse, yet there is a direction to the long arc: increasing complexity and integration. Small isolated worlds get pulled into larger systems. History can be read as convergence. As trade, migration, and empire expand, local customs are pressured to translate…","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-10-the-scent-of-money-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-10-the-scent-of-money-2/","name":"The Scent of Money","position":10,"wordCount":129,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Money is not metal or paper. It is trust at scale: a shared belief that a token accepted today can be exchanged later for real goods and labor. Barter collapses in complex economies because needs rarely match at the same moment.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-11-imperial-visions-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-11-imperial-visions-2/","name":"Imperial Visions","position":11,"wordCount":133,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Empires unify huge territories by force and administration. They collect taxes, build roads, standardize laws, and create a shared political language that can hold many cultures inside one frame. Conquest is violent, yet the imperial system often outlives the conquerors.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-12-the-law-of-religion-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-12-the-law-of-religion-2/","name":"The Law of Religion","position":12,"wordCount":138,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Religions operate as engines of order, cooperation, and meaning. They bind strangers by offering a shared moral map and a story large enough to explain life. Different religions organize reality differently: spirits tied to local places, many gods with divided powers, or one sovereign deity claiming total authority.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-13-the-secret-of-success-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-13-the-secret-of-success-2/","name":"The Secret of Success","position":13,"wordCount":129,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Why did some cultures spread and others shrink? There is no single “best” blueprint. Expansion often rewards adaptability more than virtue, intelligence, or strength. Flexibility becomes a quiet advantage. Humans can coordinate around shared myths, rewrite institutions, and absorb foreign practices.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-14-the-discovery-of-ignorance-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-14-the-discovery-of-ignorance-2/","name":"The Discovery of Ignorance","position":14,"wordCount":134,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Many societies assumed the core truths were already known: handed down by gods, ancestors, or ancient authorities. The scientific revolution begins when people admit ignorance and treat “we don’t know” as a reason to investigate.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-15-the-marriage-of-science-and-empire-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-15-the-marriage-of-science-and-empire-2/","name":"The Marriage of Science and Empire","position":15,"wordCount":116,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Exploration is not only curiosity. It becomes a political project. Empires fund voyages, surveys, and scholars because ignorance turns into strategic weakness. Maps and measurements function as tools of control. To govern a place, it must be counted, named, and fitted into categories.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-16-the-capitalist-creed-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-16-the-capitalist-creed-2/","name":"The Capitalist Creed","position":16,"wordCount":130,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Capitalism runs on faith in growth. Credit is its central ritual: trusting that future production will expand, so investing now will be repaid later. Banks and investors fund ventures that do not yet exist. Entrepreneurs hire and build before profits appear.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-17-the-wheels-of-industry-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-17-the-wheels-of-industry-2/","name":"The Wheels of Industry","position":17,"wordCount":126,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Industrialization was a revolution in energy conversion. For most of history, human work depended on muscle, and muscle depended on plants. That chain set a ceiling on production. Engines and fossil fuels cracked the ceiling.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-18-a-permanent-revolution-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-18-a-permanent-revolution-2/","name":"A Permanent Revolution","position":18,"wordCount":123,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Modernity arrives as instability made normal. Institutions that once lasted for centuries become temporary, and change turns into the baseline. Older communities weaken. Extended families, villages, guilds, and religious networks lose authority, replaced by markets and the state.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-19-and-they-lived-happily-ever-after-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-19-and-they-lived-happily-ever-after-2/","name":"And They Lived Happily Ever After","position":19,"wordCount":126,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"Does the long march of history translate into happiness? The question is harder than it sounds, because happiness is subjective and shaped by expectation. Material life improved in many ways: fewer die of famine, many live longer, and comfort expanded.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-20-the-end-of-homo-sapiens-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/chapter-20-the-end-of-homo-sapiens-2/","name":"The End of Homo Sapiens","position":20,"wordCount":139,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"For most of the story, sapiens looks like the final winner. Certainty then turns into a question: what if the species is only a stage, not an endpoint? Biotechnology, genetic engineering, and cyborg like enhancements may become the next revolution.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"},{"@type":"Chapter","@id":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/afterword-the-animal-that-became-a-god-2/","url":"https://readstacks.com/books/sapiens-a-brief-history-of-humankind-yuval-noah-harari/afterword-the-animal-that-became-a-god-2/","name":"The Animal that Became a God","wordCount":128,"timeRequired":"PT1M","abstract":"In a brief span of history, an ordinary primate became a force that reshaped continents, extinguished species, and remade ecosystems. The pattern repeats: sapiens gained power by building shared fictions, then used those fictions to coordinate large scale action.","datePublished":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z","dateModified":"2025-12-16T17:55:21Z"}]}