This is the whole span of the species in one volume, organized around three revolutions: Cognitive, agricultural, scientific. Harari’s central move is that what let us take over wasn’t intelligence exactly but the ability to believe in things that don’t physically exist — gods, nations, money, limited liability companies — which lets millions of strangers cooperate. His second best line is that farming was history’s biggest con, giving us more calories, more people, and worse lives. He’s bracing, occasionally too tidy, and specialists argue with plenty of it, which is worth knowing going in. It turn him into a phenomenon for good reason and opened my eyes to how much we take for real is just made up (starting with laws).
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind