Professor Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us. His books have sold forty-five million copies in sixty-five languages, and he is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals working today. Born in Israel in 1976, Harari received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2002 and is currently a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He co-founded the social impact company Sapienship, focused on education and media, with his husband Itzik Yahav.
“The human mind wants to worry. This is not necessarily a bad
thing—after all, if a bear is stalking you, worrying about it may
well save your life. Although most of us don’t need to lose too
much sleep over bears these days, modern life does present plenty
of other reasons for concern: terrorism, climate change, the rise
of A.I., encroachments on our privacy, even the apparent decline of
international cooperation. In his fascinating new
book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, the historian Yuval
Noah Harari creates a useful framework for confronting these
fears. While his previous best
sellers, Sapiens and Homo Deus, covered the past and
future respectively, his new book is all about the present. The
trick for putting an end to our anxieties, he suggests, is not to
stop worrying. It’s to know which things to worry about, and how
much to worry about them. . . . Harari is such a stimulating
writer that even when I disagreed, I wanted to keep reading and
thinking. . . . [Harari] has teed up a crucial global conversation
about how to take on the problems of the twenty-first
century.”—Bill Gates, The New York Times Book Review
“If there were such a thing as a required instruction manual
for politicians and thought leaders, Israeli historian Yuval Noah
Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century would deserve
serious consideration. In this collection
of provocative essays, Harari, author of the critically
praised Sapiens and Homo Deus, tackles a daunting
array of issues, endeavoring to answer a persistent question: ‘What
is happening in the world today, and what is the deep meaning of
these events?’ . . . Harari makes a passionate argument for
reshaping our educational systems and replacing our current
emphasis on quickly outdated substantive knowledge with the ‘four
Cs’—critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.
. . . Thoughtful readers will find 21 Lessons for the 21st
Century to be a mind-expanding experience.”—BookPage (top
pick)
“A sobering and tough-minded perspective on bewildering
new vistas.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Magnificently combining historical, scientific, political, and
philosophical perspectives, Harari . . . explores twenty-one of
what he considers to be today’s ‘greatest challenges.’ Despite the
title’s reference to ‘lessons,’ his tone is not prescriptive
but exploratory, seeking to provoke debate without offering
definitive solutions. . . . Within this broad construct, Harari
discusses many pressing issues, including problems associated with
liberal democracy, nationalism, immigration, and religion. This
well-informed and searching book is one to be savored and
widely discussed.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A highly instructive exploration of ‘current affairs and
. . . the immediate future of human societies.’ Having produced an
international bestseller about human origins and avoided the
sophomore jinx writing about our destiny, Harari proves that he has
not lost his touch, casting a brilliantly insightful eye on today’s
myriad crises, from Trump to terrorism, Brexit to big data. . . .
[In] twenty-one painfully astute essays, he delivers his
take on where our increasingly ‘post-truth’ world is headed. Human
ingenuity, which enables us to control the outside world, may soon
re-engineer our insides, extend life, and guide our thoughts.
Science-fiction movies get the future wrong, if only because they
have happy endings. Most readers will find Harari’s
narrative deliciously reasonable, including his explanation of
the stories (not actually true but rational) of those who elect
dictators, populists, and nationalists. His remedies for
wildly disruptive technology (biotech, infotech) and its
consequences (climate change, mass unemployment) ring true,
provided nations act with more good sense than they have shown
throughout history. Harari delivers yet another tour de
force.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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