BOOK CLUB BEAT
with Sherry Hemingway
A
t the dawn of man, at least six
species of humans walked the earth.
We homo sapiens, had brothers and
sisters. Where did they go? How did our
one species come to dominate the earth, at
the expense of all other life forms – plants,
animals, and environment. Are we better for
the domination?
Can humans understand humankind?
How are we hard-wired to achieve or fail?
Can we be truly happy? Is peace possible?
What is the future of our race? Are we
running out of time? So many questions
posed and explored in one book.
In “Sapiens: A Brief History of
Humankind,” in 443 pages, Yuval Noah
Harari tackles every aspect of the history
and future of humans. His non-fiction, inter-
national bestseller tries to makes sense of a
world that often makes none. To date the
book has been translated into 20 languages,
an indicator of its broad appeal across
the species.
Sapiens is so readable, challenging
and fast-paced that it defies being labeled
Sapiens: A Brief
History of Humankind
Author Yuval Noah Harari
anthropology. Harari takes the reader on
a journey from prehistoric humans “with
no more impact on their environment than
gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish,” and moves
through the eras of man until it is trans-
formed into the “master of the entire planet
and the terror of the ecosystem.”
After homo sapiens apparently eliminated
all other human species, what eventually set
us above other life forms was our cognitive
abilities. We were hunters and gatherers who
could learn, remember and communicate, and
we used those qualities to grow and change.
Harari postulates that the Agricultural
Revolution and wheat was a “farming plan
that backfired.” It was the beginning of “The
Luxury Trap” that plagues us today. This
“miscalculation” led to more children and
thus the need for more food, settlements that
led to the rise of infectious diseases, man’s
vulnerability to drought, and even crime.
Bulging granaries tempted thieves and led
to the building of walls and guard duty. The
author warns, “the pursuit of an easier life
brings hardship.”
For eight years, dinner, wine and books have been the agenda for Book It B.A.B.E., an acronym for
Bay Area Book Enthusiasts. Members from Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Los Gatos and San Jose are (Front Row
l-r) Clara Woods, Karen France, Jackie Sakamoto, Penny Barnes; (Back Row l-r) Tina Coghlin, Nancy
Miller, Linda Ettl, Dawn Miller and Melanie Gilbert.
Favorite Books
“Take Me With You” by Catherine Ryan Hyde
“Big Little Lies” by Liane Moriarty
“What Alice Forgot” by Liane Moriarty
“Our Souls at Night” by Kent Haruf
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd” by Jim Fergus
70
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JULY/AUGUST 2017
One of history’s iron laws, according to
Harari, “Luxuries tend to become necessities
and to spawn new obligations.” He looks
back at how it played out in early society
and takes us to the present and how we live
with that law today.
The slower parts of the book are about
the history we know best – money, empires,
religion, science, capitalism and industry.
Readers who wander off at this point will
miss the true gems at the end of the book:
what makes humans happy, and the future
of homo sapiens.
Harari asks: “But are we happier? Did
the wealth humankind accumulated over
the last five centuries translate into a new-
found contentment?” He makes the point
that we have studied just about everything
but human happiness, and wonders what
would happen if serious research were to
disprove the value of everything we now
hold as progress. He observes, “Given the
proven human propensity for misusing
power, it seems naïve to believe that the
more clout people have, the happier they
will be.” We can only speculate whether this
is offset by research that says family and
community seem to have more impact on
our happiness than money and health.
How much longer will sapiens rule the
Earth? The answer may lie with the fact that
for 4 billion years every organism evolved
by natural selection. Everything adapted
naturally. Now scientists in labs are making
the stuff of what once was science fiction:
Biological engineering, genetic engineering,
reviving extinct creatures, bionic life and
engineering inorganic beings. Natural
selection is being bypassed.
“We are on the threshold of heaven and
hell, moving nervously from the gateway
of one to the anteroom of the other, says
Harari. “History has still not decided where
we will end up, and a string of coincidences
might send us rolling in either direction.”
Reading Sapiens brings to mind
Shakespeare’s line, “What a piece of work is
a man!” He didn’t mean it as a compliment,
and Sapiens implies that we likely do not
deserve one.
gmhtoday.com