Books

A hundred thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was one of at least six human species that lived on this planet – an unremarkable animal that played no more role in the ecosystem than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish. But about seventy thousand years ago, a mysterious change in the cognitive abilities of Homo sapiens turned him into the master of the planet and the nightmare of the ecosystem. How did a reasonable person manage to conquer the world? What happened to other human species? When and why did money, states and religion appear? How did empires arise and collapse? Why did almost all societies put women below men? How did science and capitalism become the dominant creeds of the modern era? Have people become happier over time? What kind of future awaits us? Yuval Arari shows how the course of history shaped human society and the reality around it.