{"product_id":"sapiens-by-yuval-noah-harari-now-available-at-sri","title":"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/strong\u003e, published under the complete title \u003cem\u003eSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind\u003c\/em\u003e, is an ambitious exploration of how one human species developed the ability to dominate the planet, build complex societies and transform the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYuval Noah Harari takes readers across tens of thousands of years of human development, beginning with the emergence of Homo sapiens and continuing through agriculture, cities, empires, religions, capitalism, industrialisation and modern science.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRather than presenting history only as a sequence of rulers, wars and dates, the book examines the ideas, institutions and shared beliefs that enabled large numbers of strangers to cooperate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari combines history with biology, anthropology, economics and philosophy. His arguments are written for general readers, making large and complicated questions accessible without requiring specialist academic knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhy Read Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/strong\u003e encourages readers to reconsider assumptions about civilisation, progress, wealth, religion, politics and human happiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy did Homo sapiens survive while other human species disappeared? How did small groups of hunter-gatherers become nations containing millions of people? Why do strangers trust the same currency, laws, companies and political institutions?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book argues that human success depends not only on intelligence or physical strength but also on the ability to create and believe in shared stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese stories may concern gods, nations, legal systems, corporations, money or human rights. Although they are not physical objects like mountains or rivers, shared belief gives them enormous power within human societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA History of the Human Species\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book begins when Homo sapiens was only one of several human species.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther members of the human family included Neanderthals and additional groups adapted to different environments. Harari examines possible explanations for why Homo sapiens eventually became the only surviving human species.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe also considers the ecological impact of human migration. As humans entered new environments, many large animal species disappeared.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book therefore challenges the idea that environmental destruction began only with modern factories. Human beings influenced ecosystems long before industrial civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Cognitive Revolution\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first major transformation explored in the book is the Cognitive Revolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari associates this period with major changes in communication, imagination and social organisation. Humans became capable of discussing not only visible objects and immediate dangers but also things that existed mainly through collective belief.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis ability made it possible to organise larger groups. Most animals cooperate only within limited social networks, but humans can work with strangers when everyone accepts the same rules, symbols or stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA modern business, country or currency can function because millions of people who have never met one another recognise its authority or value.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Power of Shared Stories\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the book’s central arguments is that imagined realities are essential to civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis does not mean that laws, nations or money are meaningless. It means that their power depends on collective acceptance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA banknote has limited physical usefulness, but it becomes valuable when buyers, sellers, governments and financial institutions agree to trust it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA company can own property, employ workers and enter contracts even though the company itself is not a biological person. Its existence depends on legal and social agreement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShared stories allow humans to cooperate flexibly on a scale that would otherwise be impossible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Agricultural Revolution\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Agricultural Revolution transformed many human communities from mobile groups of foragers into settled populations dependent on cultivated crops and domesticated animals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAgriculture supported larger populations, permanent settlements and increasingly complex political structures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, Harari challenges the simple belief that agriculture automatically improved life for every individual. Early farmers could face repetitive labour, limited diets, disease and dependence on a small number of crops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe population may have increased even when individual wellbeing did not improve equally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis distinction between the success of a species and the happiness of individual members appears throughout the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFrom Villages to Cities and Kingdoms\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003ePermanent settlements created new administrative problems. Larger communities needed methods for recording property, trade, taxes, labour and obligations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWriting, bureaucracy and specialised government developed partly because human memory alone could not manage increasingly complex societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese systems made large kingdoms and economies possible, but they also created hierarchies and placed people into social categories.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari asks readers to consider how apparently natural social arrangements may have been created historically and then maintained through institutions and belief.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMoney as a System of Trust\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoney is presented as one of humanity’s most successful systems of cooperation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople with different languages, religions and political beliefs may still accept the same currency.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoney allows value to be exchanged between strangers and across long distances. It reduces the difficulty of direct barter because a farmer does not need to find someone who wants grain and can provide exactly the desired product in return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe system works because participants trust that other people will also accept the money later.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari therefore treats money not merely as metal, paper or digital records but as a shared system of confidence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEmpires and the Unification of Humankind\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book examines empires as major forces in cultural and political history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEmpires often expanded through violence, conquest and exploitation. At the same time, they connected distant regions, languages, technologies and systems of administration.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari avoids presenting history as a simple struggle between completely separate and unchanging cultures. Conquest, migration and trade repeatedly caused cultures to influence one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany modern languages, borders, laws and customs developed through these complicated historical encounters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eReligion and Universal Orders\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eReligion is another important source of large-scale human cooperation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReligious traditions can provide moral rules, shared rituals and explanations of existence that unite people beyond family or local communities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book considers both monotheistic and polytheistic traditions as well as systems such as Buddhism, liberalism and humanism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari uses a broad definition of religion and ideology, which makes this one of the book’s more provocative sections.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReaders may agree or disagree with his classifications, but they encourage examination of how beliefs create social order and legitimacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Scientific Revolution\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Scientific Revolution begins, in Harari’s account, with a willingness to admit ignorance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarlier societies possessed knowledge and curiosity, but modern science developed systematic methods for recognising what remained unknown and seeking evidence through observation, mathematics and experimentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis approach gradually produced major advances in medicine, navigation, engineering, astronomy and technology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eScientific research also became connected to governments, military power, commercial interests and imperial expansion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book therefore presents science not as an isolated activity but as part of a wider relationship between knowledge, money and political ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCapitalism, Credit and Economic Growth\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eModern economies depend heavily on confidence in future growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCredit allows governments, companies and individuals to use expected future income in order to invest in present opportunities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA business may borrow money to build a factory because both the owner and lender believe the factory will generate future revenue.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari connects this confidence in growth with capitalism, scientific research and overseas expansion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe also examines the moral and social consequences of a system that continually seeks greater production and consumption.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eIndustry and the Use of Animals\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Industrial Revolution increased human power and productivity, but the book asks readers to examine its effect on other animals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eModern farming can treat animals primarily as units of production, even though those animals possess biological and behavioural needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari argues that the success of domesticated species cannot be measured only by population numbers. A species may become numerous while individual animals experience restricted and difficult lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis section connects economic history with questions of ethics and animal welfare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eDid Progress Make Humans Happier?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eGreater wealth, medicine and technology have improved many aspects of life, but Harari asks whether modern humans are necessarily happier than earlier people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHappiness may depend on expectations, relationships, physical conditions, meaning and individual psychology rather than material power alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA society can produce more goods while also creating stress, isolation or dissatisfaction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book does not provide one simple measurement of happiness. Instead, it argues that historians should examine human experience as well as political and economic achievements.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eConsumerism and Modern Identity\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eModern societies often encourage people to express identity through products, experiences and lifestyle choices.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConsumer culture teaches that purchasing something new may create happiness, status or personal fulfilment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, modern individualism encourages people to see themselves as independent decision-makers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari examines how markets and states may support this individual freedom while weakening some older family and community structures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Future of Homo Sapiens\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe final sections look beyond recorded history towards biotechnology, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHumans are gaining the ability to change bodies, minds and biological processes rather than depending only on natural evolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis creates extraordinary opportunities but also serious ethical questions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWho will control these technologies? Who will be able to afford them? Could biological enhancement create new forms of inequality? What should humanity choose to become?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book ends by suggesting that increased power does not automatically produce wisdom. The ability to transform life makes responsible decision-making increasingly important.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Multidisciplinary Work\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSapiens\u003c\/em\u003e moves between history, anthropology, biology, economics, religion and philosophy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis broad approach makes the book stimulating and accessible, but it also means that many complicated subjects are summarised within limited space.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReaders should view the book as a large interpretive synthesis rather than the final authority on every subject it discusses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSome arguments are deliberately provocative and have generated debate among historians, anthropologists, philosophers and scientists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe strongest reading approach is to engage with the questions, compare Harari’s claims with additional sources and distinguish established evidence from broad interpretation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMajor Themes in Sapiens\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book explores subjects including:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHuman evolution and the disappearance of other human species\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Cognitive Revolution and the development of complex language\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShared myths and large-scale cooperation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Agricultural Revolution and settled societies\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe growth of cities, kingdoms and empires\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMoney as a shared system of trust\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReligion, ideology and social order\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCapitalism, credit and economic growth\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eScience, imperialism and technology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnimal welfare and environmental destruction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe relationship between progress and happiness\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBiotechnology and the possible future of humanity\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWho Should Read This Book?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is recommended for:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReaders interested in world history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStudents of anthropology and sociology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReaders interested in human evolution\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFans of popular science and big-history books\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReaders exploring politics, economics and religion\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTeachers and university students\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBook clubs seeking thought-provoking non-fiction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReaders interested in the future of humanity\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe writing is accessible to general readers, although its broad arguments encourage careful and critical reading.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAbout Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eYuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher and bestselling author known for examining the large forces shaping human history and the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis other books include \u003cem\u003eHomo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e21 Lessons for the 21st Century\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNexus\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eSapiens: A Graphic History\u003c\/em\u003e series and the children’s series \u003cem\u003eUnstoppable Us\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarari studied at the University of Oxford and has taught history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cstrong\u003eSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/strong\u003e, he combines historical narrative with questions about biology, imagination, cooperation, power and technological change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOfficial information about the book is available from the\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.ynharari.com\/book\/sapiens\/\"\u003eYuval Noah Harari Sapiens page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInformation about the matching Vintage paperback is available from the\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/419795\/sapiens-by-harari-yuval-noah\/9780099590088\"\u003eofficial Penguin Sapiens page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhy Buy from Book Lounge Sri Lanka?\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/booklounge.lk\/\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook Lounge\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e is an online bookstore offering fiction, non-fiction, biographies, children’s books and educational titles to readers throughout Sri Lanka.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExplore similar history, science and educational books through the\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/booklounge.lk\/product-category\/non-fiction\/\"\u003eBook Lounge Non-Fiction collection\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrowse all currently available titles through the\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/booklounge.lk\/store\/\"\u003eBook Lounge online store\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor assistance with availability, payments, delivery or an existing order, visit the\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/booklounge.lk\/contact\/\"\u003eBook Lounge contact page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBuy Sapiens Online in Sri Lanka\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuy \u003cstrong\u003eSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/strong\u003e online in Sri Lanka from Book Lounge and explore how biology, imagination, agriculture, money, religion, empires and science shaped human civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOrder \u003cstrong\u003eSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari\u003c\/strong\u003e from Book Lounge today and discover a bold, accessible and thought-provoking history of who we are, how we reached the modern world and where humanity may be heading.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Lounge","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67987109282067,"sku":"2087","price":3390.0,"currency_code":"LKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1011\/1890\/2547\/files\/713jIoMO3UL._SL1500.jpg?v=1794309239","url":"https:\/\/mo.lk\/products\/sapiens-by-yuval-noah-harari-now-available-at-sri","provider":"MO Marketplace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}