The whole run 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 of argument 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 made him a phenomenon for good reason.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind