#JustFinished Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

I feel like he spent too much time working at being cutesy and not enough at internal consistency. It was an amusing book, however. Taken as a light historical fiction about the run-up to modern life, it’s good enough.

One example of the issues with the book follows:
He sets up the straw man of biological essentialism, then knocks it down with social consctructs.

1/3
#history #nonfiction #bookstodon #books @bookstodon

  • Sean Bala@mas.to
    1·
    7 months ago

    @DejahEntendu@dice.camp @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @religion@a.gup.pe It is good text to introduce students to thinking on broader time scales and about big ideas, but one needs to use it as a jumping off point rather than a destination.

    • DThoris@dice.campOP
      1·
      7 months ago

      @seanbala@mas.to @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @religion@a.gup.pe
      He definitely used an odd definition of religion. However, having just left Texas and living there during part of a rise of ChristoFascism, I have a hard time seeing any positive in religion right now.