Author: Yuval Noah Harari File Type: epub New York Times BestsellerFrom a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanitys creation and evolutiona #1 international bestsellerthat explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be human.One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only onehomo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrationsdiagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.**Amazon.com ReviewAn Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2015 Yuval Noah Harari has some questions. Among the biggest How did Homo sapiens (or Homo sapiens sapiens , if youre feeling especially wise today) evolve from an unexceptional savannah-dwelling primate to become the dominant force on the planet, emerging as the lone survivor out of six distinct, competing hominid species? He also has some answers, and theyre not what youd expect. Tackling evolutionary concepts from a historians perspective, Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind, describes human development through a framework of three not-necessarily-orthodox Revolutions the Cognitive, the Agricultural, and the Scientific. His ideas are interesting and often amusing Why have humans managed to build astonishingly large populations when other primate groups top out at 150 individuals? Because our talent for gossip allows us to build networks in societies too large for personal relationships between everyone, and our universally accepted imagined realities--such as money, religion, and Limited Liability Corporationskeep us in line. Who cultivated whom, humans or wheat?. Wheat. Though the concepts are unusual and sometimes heavy (as is the book, literally) Hararis deft prose and wry, subversive humor make quick work of material prone to academic tedium. Hes written a book of popular nonfiction (it was a bestseller overseas, no doubt in part because his conclusions draw controversy) landing somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram of genetics, sociology, and history. Throughout, Harari returns frequently to another question Does all this progress make us happier, our lives easier? The answer might disappoint you. --Jon ForoReviewSapiens tackles the biggest questions of history and of the modern world, and it is written in unforgettably vivid language. (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and The World until Yesterday) Sapiens takes readers on a sweeping tour of the history of our species. Hararis formidable intellect sheds light on the biggest breakthroughs in the human storyimportant reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens. (Washington Post) Sapiens is learned, thought-provoking and crisply written. Fascinating. (Wall Street Journal) In Sapiens, Harari delves deep into our history as a species to help us understand who we are and what made us this way. An engrossing read. (Dan Ariely, New York Times Bestselling author of Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty) Yuval Noah Hararis celebrated Sapiens does for human evolution what Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time did for physics. He does a superb job of outlining our slow emergence and eventual domination of the planet. (Forbes) It is one of the best accounts by a Homo sapiens of the unlikely story of our violent, accomplished species.It is one hell of a story. And it has seldom been told better. Compulsively readable and impossibly learned. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post) This was the most surprising and thought-provoking book I read this year. (Atlantic.com) Yuval Noah Hararis full-throated review of our species may have been blurbed by Jared Diamond, but Hararis conclusions are at once balder and less tendentious than that of his famous colleague. (New York magazine) This title is one of the exceptional works of nonfiction that is both highly intellectual and compulsively readable a fascinating, hearty read. (Library Journal (starred review)) An encyclopedic approach from a well-versed scholar who is concise but eloquent, both skeptical and opinionated, and open enough to entertain competing points of view.The great debates of history aired out with satisfying vigor. (Kirkus Reviews (starred review)) Writing with wit and verve, Harariattempts to explain how Homo sapiens came to be the dominant species on Earth as well as the sole representative of the human genus. Provocative and entertaining. (Publishers Weekly) The most idea-packed work of non-fiction Ive read in years. (Dick Meyer, www.abcactionnews.com) In this sweeping look at the history of humans, Harari offers readers the chance to reconsider, well, everything, from a look at why Homo sapiens endured to a compelling discussion of how society organizes itself through fictions. (Booklist Best Books of the Year) Its not often that a book offers readers the possibility to reconsider, well, everything. But thats what Harari does in this sweeping look at the history of humans. Readers of every stripe should put this at the top of their reading lists. Thinking has never been so enjoyable. (Booklist (starred review)) The sort of book that sweeps the cobwebs out of your brain. Harariis an intellectual acrobat whose logical leaps will have you gasping with admiration. (John Carey, Sunday Times (London)) Hararis account of how we conquered the Earth astonishes with its scope and imagination. One of those rare books that lives up to the publishers blurb...brilliantly clear, witty and erudite. (Ben Shepard, the Observer (London)) An absorbing, provocative history of civilizationpacked with heretical thinking and surprising facts. This riveting, myth-busting book cannot be summarisedyou will simply have to read it. (John Gray, Financial Times (London)) Full ofhigh-perspective, shocking and wondrous stories, as well as strange theories and startling insights. (Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times) Not only is Harari eloquent and humane, he is often wonderfully, mordantly funny (The Independent (London)) Engaging and informative. Extremely interesting. (Guardian (London)) Harari can writereally, really write, with wit, clarity, elegance, and a wonderful eye for metaphor. (The Times (Ireland))

Author: Claire Nally File Type: pdf Although W. B. Yeats is one of the most over-theorised authors in the Irish canon, little attempt has been made to situate his occult works in the political context of early twentieth-century Ireland. By evaluating the two versions of A Vision, published in 1925 and 1937, this book provides a methodology for understanding the political and cultural impulses that informed Yeatss engagement with the otherworld. The author suggests that the Yeatsian occult operates very firmly within the political parameters of Irish nationalism, often as a critique of the new Free State, or as an alternative way of mythologising and inaugurating a new nation state. The occult, far from being free of all political considerations, registers the poets shifting allegiances, from the Celticism of the 1890s to his disenchantment with modern Ireland in the Free State.Through close readings of Yeatss manuscripts and his primary and critical works, including a close assessment of the frequently neglected dramatic texts, the author seeks to force a rethinking of the critical reception of the Yeatsian occult through contemporary theoretical developments in postcolonialism, subjectivity, national identity and textual instability.**