8 books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens works because it explains a huge stretch of time with a few big ideas: the cognitive revolution, farming as a trap, and money, empire and religion as stories people share. The books below do the same for other questions, from why some continents got ahead to how genes and hormones shape what we do.
Listen to it free. Start the full audiobook on Audible — free with a trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Start listening freeon AudibleNew members only · many titles are included with the membership. As an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and membership trials at no extra cost to you.
#1 · same authorHomo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
by Yuval Noah Harari
Harari's sequel turns from the past to the future: what humans aim for once famine, plague and war matter less, and what happens when data starts making our choices.
Shared theme: cognition + how the mind works
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you.- Guns, Germs, and SteelJared Diamond#2
Guns, Germs, and Steel
by Jared Diamond
Asks why Eurasian societies came to conquer others and answers with geography: which crops and animals could be domesticated, and which way the continents run.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you. - A Short History of Nearly EverythingBill Bryson#3
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
Bryson does for science what Harari does for history: from the Big Bang to the first humans, told by an outsider who asked scientists to explain it plainly.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you. - BehaveRobert M. Sapolsky#4
Behave
by Robert M. Sapolsky
Sapolsky explains a single human act by stepping back in time: one second before, hours, years, centuries. The biology underneath Harari's history.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you. - The Silk RoadsPeter Frankopan#5
The Silk Roads
by Peter Frankopan
World history told from the middle of Asia instead of Europe, through the trade routes that carried goods, faiths and disease.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you. - The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins#6
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
Goes back before the cognitive revolution, to the gene's-eye view of evolution that a lot of Harari's thinking about biology builds on.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you. 
#7Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
Harari shows what shared stories made humans do together. Kahneman shows how one human mind makes judgments, and where it slips.
Shared theme: cognition + how the mind works
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you.- SPQRMary Beard#8
SPQR
by Mary Beard
If the chapters on empire held you, Mary Beard follows one city's growth into an empire across a thousand years of Roman history.
You have the gist — now hear the whole argument. Free with an Audible trial for eligible new members, cancel anytime.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate, Read Stacks earns from qualifying purchases and Audible trials at no extra cost to you.
Appears in these topics
Sapiens is part of this curated reading list — each a “best books on X” cluster with a synthesis on how the books fit together.