Chapter 1
In this topic, Prof. Harari uses the Big Bang
theory. According to him, approximately 13.5
billion years ago, space, time energy and matter
began to exist. The coming into being of these
phenomena, laid the basis for the development
of essential features in the universe. It was the
coming into being of these phenomena that gave
rise to physics. After coming into existence, Prof.
Harari reports that matter and energy joined
together to form atoms, these coalesced into
molecules. The molecules later, combined to
form structures, which are today known as
organisms. Ideally, during the development and
coalescing of these phenomena, physics,
chemistry and biology came into existence.
However, the organisms that were formed,
belonged to different groups, and there was one
that belonged to the Homo sapiens. In about,
700, 000 years ago, the Homo sapiens assumed
some structures, which led to the formation of
culture. In essence, the development of human
cultures was systematic and it never happened
in a single day. It took years, for human cultures
to develop.
However, the development of the human culture,
then became what is commonly referred to us
history. Prof. Harari notes that history was
shaped fundamentally by the agricultural,
cognitive, and scientific revolutions. These
revolutions influenced organisms or humans
deeply. Thus, this topic simply acknowledges
that the origin of humankind and other
organisms began from some simple phenomena
like energy and matter, atoms and molecules.
Nevertheless, Harari asks “What was the
Sapiens’ secret of success?” This question lays
the basis for mental development of human kind.
It is factual that sapiens had to have something
different from other species. The different thing
according to Harari was that human sapiens had
superior knowledge that largely shaped its
success. In addition, Harari (22) states
that “Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks
above all to its unique language.” It is the
language that enabled sapiens to exchange
ideas, live together, invent and innovate. Hence,
to expound the success of Homo sapiens, Harari
examines what he terms as a Tree of
Knowledge.
Analysis
The book basically opens with the origin of
organisms from simple phenomena like energy,
matter, atoms and molecules. The chronological
explanation given in this chapter regarding the
coming of organisms into existence, confirm that
organisms including Homo sapiens evolved from
simple organisms into complex organisms.
Ostensibly, the sapiens appeared the most
intelligent organisms, and that explains why they
formed their own cultures and later became in
charge of other organisms. Besides, the author’s
presentation of systematic developments or
revolution of human cultures and societies
presents evolution as an ongoing process.
Harari convinces that organisms originated from
simple organisms to become complex
organisms. This pictures humankind evolution
as a process that is gradual, but makes
tremendous transformations to human life.
Chapter 2
In this chapter, the focus is on the differences in
knowledge or brains between other human
species. The East Africa had many sapiens,
which pushed other human species into
extinction across the world, due to their
dominance on earth. Most importantly, the
chapter seeks to identify the similarities in the
brain structures between the human beings and
sapiens, but there is no substantive records that
can show the differences in brain structure to
ascertain the similarities between human beings
and sapiens. In essence, the chapter looks into
the ability of Sapiens, Neanderthal or human
beings to think, communicate, use language
properly and cooperate. Also, the chapter notes
that the cognitive revolution that happened to
Sapiens enabled them to think creatively and
change behaviors. Imperatively, Harari (23)
argues that sapiens “looked like us, but their
cognitive abilities – learning, remembering,
communicating – were far more limited.” Ideally,
the point is that sapiens was knowledgeable, but
their brain capacity was not enough to hold a lot
of information. But, more importantly, is that the
sapiens brain was growing slowly by slowly, and
able to record and retrieve information about
their achievements.
Analysis
Analytically, the chapter reveals overtly that
sapiens or human beings had larger brain
structures than other organisms and that is what
differentiated them from them. The larger brains
enhanced the development of communication
ability, cooperation and language use among the
sapiens. The larger brains of sapiens in all
likelihood differentiated the sapiens from other
organisms in terms of creativity, behavior and
reasoning. Additionally, the intention of this
chapter was to present human beings as the
most knowledgeable, special and intelligent
humankind sapiens. The society was getting
complex and information was increasing
presenting a challenge of information storage
since the sapiens brain was had limited capacity.
Chapter 3
According to Prof. Harari, to understand nature,
psychology and history of humans, it is important
to look into it from the perspective of their hunter-
gatherers. Harari (40) says the “preceding
10,000 years, during which most Sapiens lived
as farmers and herders, are the blink of an eye
compared to the tens of thousands of years
during which our ancestors hunted and
gathered.” This statement informs the transition
of sapiens from being hunter-gatherers to
farmers. However, people would always tend to
behave like their ancestors, because behavior
and character is inheritable. By extension,
Harari states ancestors of humans, Adam and
Eve, were gatherers and hunters, and to date
human beings still have the behaviors of their
ancestors despite living in post-industrial
societies. Ideally, this chapter claims that the
current people still possess the hunter-gatherer
minds, which interact with their current post-
industrial societies. Hence, the current
behaviors of people are still linked to the
behaviors of their hunter-gatherers, and that
means that despite people being in modern
societies they still possess the behaviors of their
hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Analysis
Substantially, the author suggests that despite
the evolution of the sapiens into superior beings,
its behavior is still linked to hunter-gatherer. This
is to imply that, human beings still act like their
ancestors. Hitherto, human beings still possess
their ancestral characters. For instance, the
hunter-gatherers were used to sweeter
foodstuffs and to date people still consume
sugary foodstuffs, which resultantly is the cause
of obesity.
Chapter 4
According to Harari, (59) “the sea barrier
prevented not just humans but also many other
Afro-Asian animals and plants from reaching this
‘Outer World.” The issue of water separating
human sapiens was a serious one, but sapiens
had to think of how to travel by sea. The chapter
notes that the water bodies like oceans
prevented the Afro-Asian animals to venture into
the outer world like Australia. The water bodies
created a barrier that made it difficult for humans
and animals to explore other land masses and
settle there. However, due to the cognitive
revolution, technology improved and it became
possible for the Afro-Asian people to move to
Asia and other unsettled lands as well as
islands. Thus, the chapter believes that the
cognitive revolution that happened to humanity
facilitated the movement of plants and animals
to other places or continents for settlement and
that accounts for the widespread of people
across the world.
Analysis
The chapter, figuratively and literally, refer to the
migration of sapiens to different parts of the
world. In the outset, physical barriers like
oceans hindered the movement of sapiens to
other places or continents. Since sapiens were
creative and innovative, they had to develop
ways of accessing other parts of the world. The
ability to think creatively enabled sapiens to
navigate through the physical features like
oceans until it reached other parts of the world.
It is on account of cognitive revolution that
mankind was then able to spread across the
world and indeed that is why people are settled
across Europe, Asia, America, Asia and Africa.
Chapter 5
In a nutshell, the chapter indicates that 2.5
million years ago, humans gathered plants and
hunted animals to feed themselves. According to
the chapter, Homo ergaster and Homo erectus
and Neanderthal depended on wild sheep and
wild figs for food. Homo sapiens lived in East
Africa then proceeded to Middle East, Asia and
Europe. However, later the Homo sapiens
spread to America and Australia, and proceeded
with gathering and hunting of wildlife for their
survival. Most notable in the chapter is that the
political dynamics, religious beliefs and social
structures of Homo sapiens significantly
changed, 10, 000 years ago because they spent
time on compromising the lives of plants and
animals. Mankind started sowing seeds,
irrigated plants and weeded them. Man also
began taking the sheep to grazing grounds,
especially for meat. Ideally, the chapter
underscores the domestication of plants and
animals that revolutionized agriculture. The
chapter has laid bare that humans began
manipulating plants as well as animals’ lives and
that set firm footing for agricultural revolution.
This comes out in the statement where Harari
(70) all this changed about 10,000 years ago,
when Sapiens began to devote almost all their
time and effort to manipulating the lives of a few
animal and plant species.
Analysis
As noted in this chapter, its main theme was to
narrate the stories about domestication and its
impact on human society. From the chapter, it is
overtly stated that mankind domesticated plants
as well as animals and that considerably laid the
foundation of agriculture. When plants and
animals were domesticated, sapiens had to
reorganize themselves and adopted a new
lifestyle that was agriculturally-based, which was
totally different from a hunter-gatherer-kind of
lifestyle. Arguably, this chapter sets the basis for
agricultural revolution and organizations of
societies. When humankind sapiens started
domesticating plants and animals, they saw the
necessity of grouping in communities forming
more structured and organized societies.
Chapter 6
The previous chapter discussed the beginning of
agricultural revolution, which some opinion
leaders set the world to absolute ruin. When
agricultural revolution set off, lives of plants and
animals were completely compromised and this
chapter features agricultural revolution as
perdition. However, the revolution of agriculture
generally is believed to have set off the world to
progress and prosperity. It is greed, and
overexploitation of the resources that are laying
a foundation for the absolute ruin.
The agricultural revolution indeed became a
turning point. Harari, (88) notes “this was the
turning point, they say, where Sapiens cast of its
intimate symbiosis with nature and sprinted
towards greed and alienation.” The sapiens
developed a symbiotic relationship with nature,
but it is unfortunate they focused on alienation
and greed. When farming increased, the
populations also multiplied and agricultural
societies were formed. In essence, the chapter
underscores that the rise of agricultural societies
resulted in the transition of hunting and gathering
into farming and establishment of permanent
settlements.
The land that was once massive shrank because
of the increased population. The land mass that
was available was converted into agriculture and
nomadic farmers also needed enough space to
graze their animals. With the increased
population, and rapidly growing agriculture the
pressure on resources increased and this is why
some people argue that agricultural revolution is
controversial. In addition, it was during this
period that farmers accumulated many objects
or artifacts more than forager tribe.
The farmers were interested in the coming future
and that is why they preferred preserving food or
wealth. However, the foragers never cared about
the future and their interest was consuming all
that they had. The main reason the foragers
discounted the future according to Prof. Harari
was because they lived on the hand-to-mouth
basis. In addition, the agricultural revolution
brought sapiens together, to share their produce
together. It is the coming together of agricultural
families that resulted in the emergency of
imagined order. People had to settle together
and organize themselves in families to create
their wealth or share their amassed agricultural
produce.
Analysis
The phrase “Building pyramids” is not literally the
construction of pyramids but it was the
construction of social classes. It is on this
chapter that Prof. Harari implies the organization
of sapiens based on their social status. The
wealthy people belonged to a privileged and
power tier of the society. The chapter is a
depiction of the social classes people belong
today, where the rich people are considered
privileged, influential and powerful in the society.
At the base of the pyramid, the people who are
found there are low class and underprivileged.
Since the base of the pyramid is large, it shows
that the majority of people were subservient to
those in the highest level of the pyramid.
Ostensibly, the pyramid mirrors the modern
society where the ruling class is at the peak of
the social ladder, but influence and controls the
masses at the lower cadre of the society.
Chapter 7
The chapter generally looks into the memory
system of human beings. The memory of the
Homo sapiens stores a lot of information, and
thus the sapiens must have stored a lot of
information during agricultural revolution. Prof.
Harari claims that empires which developed in
the agricultural societies had a lot of information.
The empires had to record taxes, transactions,
merchant vessels, calendars of victories and
festivals and inventories of military supplies.
Funnily, Prof. Harari writes that for millions of
years man preferred storing information in their
brain. Unfortunately, it was difficult for humans to
store all the information of the empire for some
key reasons. The reasons mankind could not
store all the information in the brains included,
limited capacity, brains die following the death of
humans and the human memory could only
store certain information.
In a nutshell, Prof. Harari in this chapter was
interested in understanding the storage of
information in the past. As he notes “Empires
generate huge amounts of information “(89).
This information had to be stored. As man
evolved, at first the information could be stored
in the memory and then when an individual who
had the information died, they could definitely die
with the information. The limitation of the mental
capacity, necessitated the group of people
called, Sumerians to develop information
strange system. The Sumerians lived in
southern Mesopotamia and its geniuses
invented a system that enabled them to store
and process huge amounts of information
outside the memory. The invention made by
Sumerians was writing, and through this
invention the information could be documents
and usually stored as mathematical data. The
mathematical scripts made it easier to store data
as well as empires and kingdoms were able to
store information on harvests or transactions
through writing. This replaced the dependence
on human brains for information storage.
Analysis
The chapter simply reveals how man overcame
the limitations of use of human memory to store
information. It is doubtless that the human brain
has a limited capacity to store information and
that is why organizations are computerizing
information storage. Also, the flash discs and
some digitals platforms allow man to store data
for future retrieval and use. This is to mean that
intelligence of man enabled him to invent writing
and computers to solve its memory storage
limitation.
Chapter 8
In this chapter, Prof. Harari is investigating how
mankind organized themselves in what he
describes as “mass-cooperation networks.”
According to the chapter, humans lacked the
biological instincts which could enable them to
sustain “mass-cooperation networks.” However,
to address this concern, the author asserts that
the creation of imagined order and devised
scripts, which were succeeded through invention
of writing, gave information on biological
inheritance. Note that the imagined order, led to
the creation of some classes or group classes,
where people were classified based on their
affluence.
The classes were in a pyramid- like formation
and the people who belonged to the upper class
of the pyramid wielded power and were
accorded privileges. The people that belonged to
lower level of the pyramid were discriminated
and oppressed. In essence, the pyramid had
superiors, commoners and slaves, and the
people who suffered were the slaves. In reality,
the pecking order claimed in this chapter is a
demonstration of how unjust history has been to
other people and the same history is repeated
especially in a society like America, where the
White people were considered and Black
Americans as well as Americans Indians were
considered inferior and slaves.
Analysis
The major idea presented in this chapter is
organization and ordering of the society. At this
point, humankind sapiens was more developed
and realized the need to live in a more organized
way. For the society to be more organized,
Harari observes mass cooperation networks as
the solution. Mass cooperation networks that
individuals see today began long time ago after
sapiens realized the need to man’s social order.
To manage social order, the society had to be
unequal, so that the superior individuals could
influence the inferiors. Thus, this explains the
current inequalities in families, communities,
societies, regions, or nations. The inequalities
observed in the society, therefore originated
from the desire to create imagined order.
Chapter 9
In the post-agricultural revolution period, the
human societies became more complex. Also,
these societies became larger and the imagined
order became clearer. People also got used to
the fictions and myths as soon as they were
born. The people started to think depending on
the way they were born and also individuals
began behaving according to some standards.
Also, the societies required that its members in
a certain way, where they respect rules and
regulations and laws. Basically, what happened
in the human societies was that cultures were
created and they required people to behave in a
certain way and due to that strangers could work
together. Culture bound strangers together and
they had no any other option but to cooperate.
Analysis
According to this chapter, the cultures that were
formed by different human groups had their own
legal, social and worldview systems that guided
them. Each culture had its own uniqueness and
their political arrangements were also unique
and facilitated the running of human societies
harmoniously. Noticeably, scholars of culture
agree that each culture has its own uniqueness,
because of the natural differences of people.
The beliefs, values or norms of cultures are
dissimilar; however, a culture is dynamic.
Culture is dynamic in the sense that it can
transform itself to another one, by simply leaving
out some of its previous practices. In a nutshell,
the chapter generally looks into the role of
culture and it agrees that the social order people
have today rooted from culture. Through culture,
beliefs, values and norms were developed to
guide behavior and organize people.
Chapter 10
Generally, the chapter discusses the history of
currency. Trade was happening and it was barter
trade, but later gold and silver were introduced.
According to the chapter, Mexicans had gold, but
did not know its values. The Aztecs living in
Mexico did not know the reason foreigners liked
the yellow metal that was present on their land.
The yellow metal in this case was money, but it
is unfortunate that Aztecs used bolts and beans
to pay for the goods; they had instead of the
yellow metals. Fortunately, the Spaniards knew
the value of gold and exploited it. Notably, the
idea of using gold as currency came from the
Spaniards and they were the ones that spread it
across the Afro-Asia and other parts of the world.
Later, the Christians after their victory against
the Muslims made gold as well as silver coins
and the use of these coins became widespread
among the Christians. In a nutshell, the chapter
discusses how the use of money came into
existence.
Analysis
The main theme that is drawn from the chapter
is currency evolution. In the past, people
practiced barter trade, because they did not
have an alternative means of payment like metal
or paper money. However, the love of gold by
Spaniards and the Muslim-Christian supremacy
battle instigated the making of coins and paper
currency people use today in trade or sales as
well as purchases. The evolution of currency
seems to be based on the argument of Harari
revolutionized and modernized trade.
Chapter 11
In his argument, Prof. Harari believes that there
is no justice in history. It is from that belief that
the imperial visions were pursued by some
empires to undermine others. In general, Harari
discusses the emergence of empires that sought
to expand themselves by colonizing other
regions or areas. The author identified the
American, French, Dutch, Belgian empires
which pursued territorial expansion that
undermined other independent people and
cultures. Interestingly, the author observes that
the Roman Empire was used to defeat and that
could be the reason why it lost its power and
control. Basically, the chapter discusses the
conquest of other empires and territorial
expansion of some well-established empires.
Analysis
The main theme from this chapter is the
emergence of imperialism that necessitated the
colonization of African and conquest of some
historically strong empires like Ottoman. From
the chapter, one is likely to believe that the
American imperialism roots from the desire to
subjugate other societies and install new world
order to desires of the powerful nations like the
USA.
Chapter 12
The chapter discusses religion and believes that
religions like Islam had their sacred places such
as Mecca. In the past religion seemed to unite
people and enhanced the belief in oneness
among the people sharing the same religion.
However, today the chapter notes that religion is
a source disunion, discrimination, and
disagreements. Also, in the history of religion,
Buddhism and Islam are the best known.
Generally, the chapter discusses religion, its
history and how its controversies today.
Analysis
Critically, the law of religion chapter serves to
remind mankind the morals, laws, rules and
regulations deep-seated in religion. Each
religion, Christianity or Islam has its own beliefs,
and laws that its members are obliged to strictly
observe.
Chapter 13
The chapter claims that the universal religion,
empires and commerce brought the world
together and that is why today the world is
global. The cultures that were once small are
now larger, because small cultures have
coalesced into larger cultures to meet the needs
of the global population. Today, the global
society has a lot to share together, and that is
because of blurred boundaries between nations
or independent states.
Analysis
The chapter argues that the society has
organized its cultures to become successful. The
author essentially informs the readers that it took
the coming together of cultures and people to
create the success or wealth that the world
boasts of today.
Chapter 14
The chapter simply discusses that the human
beings had made numerous inventions and
innovations. But, there was 99.99 percent
ignorance about organisms and earth. Human
beings did not know anything about
microorganisms and therefore the discovery of a
home-made microscope in 1674 by Anton van
Leeuwenhoek is what helped people to view
microorganisms. Basically, the discovery of
ignorance laid the basis for scientific revolution
as man, started working toward discovering
those things they had never observed or felt
before.
Analysis
From the chapter it is clear that humankind did
not know anything about microorganisms. But,
due to creativity and independent-mindedness
of people like Anton van Leeuwenhoek, a
microscope was invented to facilitate the
understanding of microorganisms. Thus, the
understanding of viral, fungal and bacterial
diseases can be attributed to the discovery of
ignorance.
Chapter 15
In a nutshell, this chapter looks into how super
nation countries used science to stamp their
control on the earth. The astronomers took an
initiative to understand the earth and also to find
the distance that exists between the sun and
earth mathematically. However, later
astronomers were sent around the world to study
the earth and atmosphere. Also, the
development of Europe and North America was
due to scientific development, which other
countries did not have. Hence, the scientific
development made in European nations,
facilitate their growth and control of the world.
Analysis
From the chapter, what one grasps that empires
used science to understand the world, develop it
and control it. Hence, it is arguable that the
imperialism by America or Europe over other
nations can be attributed to their use of scientific
development to control the world.
Chapter 16
The chapter in a nutshell discusses capitalism
and notes that the adoption of money was
believed to facilitate constructions of buildings
and empires. However, in the history of
economy, Prof. Harari argues that production
per capita had not increased, but increase was
attributed to the rising population. Perceptibly,
the author asserts that the capitalist’s ideas and
desires pushed people to seek more wealth for
themselves at the expense of others. Banks
were opened and people started other
businesses like bakery objectively to tap into the
money that was available among its potential
customers. In addition, people invested in
scientific research to improve technology, and at
the same time new geographical discoveries,
organizational developments and technological
inventions were made to enable people to
amass wealth.
Analysis
The main theme drawn from this chapter is
capitalism. Capitalism gave people the desire to
create wealth for themselves and that facilitates
the exploration of other geographical location,
technological development and research. It is on
this chapter, that people saw the need to invest
in businesses or research to create wealth.
Notably, the desire to tap into the opportunities
to create wealth benefited a majorly enriched
group of people, and set the world off to
economic growth and competition.
Chapter 17
In summary, the chapter wholesomely discusses
the rise of industries. In the previous chapter,
business people were making money from their
businesses, and could bank their profits, but this
chapter alludes that the profits were ploughed
back into businesses. Due to re-investments
industries grew and more wealth was created
not just for individual investors but for nationals
of a particular state. People started using energy
and raw materials to create wealth and boost
investments, and that pushed the world towards
industrialization, and significant economic
growth.
Analysis
The chapter essentially presents ideas of how
industrial development started. Investments
propelled the industrial development, and the
businesspeople that had made profits from their
business ventures had the willingness to invest
their profits. By investing, it became necessary
for humankind to industrialize the human
societies and that explains why the world is an
industrialized global society.
Chapter 18
The previous chapter describes how the
industrial revolution began. Chapter 17,
indicates that people started using energy and
raw materials to produce goods and services for
the market. Vehicles and other many goods
were manufactured and traded. This chapter
puts the emphasis on how industrial revolution
gained permanency. Today, it is apparent that
industrial revolution is permanent and many
countries are seeking it, because it is the only
way to develop a nation or create wealth enough
to meet the needs of masses.
Analysis
The chapter deems revolution as irreversible
and humankind would have to live up to it. Also,
the chapter portrays sapiens as the main agent
of revolution and therefore, plants as well as that were put to them naturally by natural
animals would remain permanently remain selection.
under the control of sapiens. Also, the natural
Analysis
resources are now in complete utilization amid
ecological degradation, but sapiens is more “The end of Homo sapiens” phrase coined by
focused on mass production and exploitation of Harari suggests that humankind is entering
resources for wealth creation. another stage as far as evolution is concerned.
The human societies are an advanced stage,
Chapter 19
where science seems to control every aspect of
This chapter is debatable in the sense that it human life. Take the example of robotics, the
raises the question whether people are happy robots are seemingly going to replace sapiens,
and contented due to agricultural, scientific and and Prof. Harari could be suggesting that with
industrial revolutions that have happened. time, even the only human species remaining
However, Prof. Harari claims that since the could be replaced in the future.
inception of scientific revolution there has been
correlation between power and happiness, and
this is to demonstrate that revolutions which
happened as indicated in the history made
people happy, but in the present this is
debatable because in modern age people are
still not happy despite the emergence and
success of permanency of scientific and
industrial revolutions.
Analysis

From the explanations given by Prof. Harari in

this chapter, the success mankind has achieved
has brought happiness to human societies. The
human society is developed, and better than the
pre-agricultural or industrial societies and this
perhaps could be the reason human sapiens has
been able to live happily.
Chapter 20

The chapter generally asserts that sapiens are

subject to natural selection processes, chemical
reactions and physical forces like other
organisms. The natural selection had given
humankind some limitation, which man
transcends today due to intelligent design. In
summation, the chapter says that introduction of
biological engineering, innovations and
inventions have enabled humankind to
transcend some of the limitations or boundaries