Sapiens — A Brief History of Humankind

A sweeping big-history account of the human species, from cognition and agriculture to the modern world.

modern retelling. Modern retelling — a contemporary reworking, distinct from the original.
Theme: world-history Theme: big-history Theme: ideas

Another one on the queue. I'm including it partly because this archive isn't meant to stop at the subcontinent — the "world history" and "ideas" strands are supposed to grow too — and Sapiens is an obvious, if debated, entry point into big-picture human history.

Why it's on the list

I want a counterweight to the archive's current center of gravity. Almost everything here so far orbits Indian texts and traditions; a genuinely global, deep-time narrative is a useful corrective, if only to remind me how much sits outside the frame I've been building. Sapiens is famous for that zoomed-all-the-way-out view, and I'm curious how it reads once I've spent months thinking about a single civilization in detail.

Why it's filed the way it is

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Sources & further reading

Related in the archive

Book

India — A History

A single-volume narrative history of the subcontinent, from early antiquity to the modern period.

Note

Keeping Mythology and History Apart

A working note on the editorial line this archive draws between story, tradition, archaeology, and history.

← Back to Books

Next → The Discovery of India A sweeping, personal meditation on Indian civilization, written from prison and shaped as much by its author's political moment as by the history it surveys.