Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind- By Yuval Noah Harari

This book was a great way to combine all aspects of anthropology. The book was organized as a sort of timeline of humans, keeping in mind the anthropology aspect. It covered social anthropology, cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, political anthropology, etc. This book is a great introduction and covers all the basics of the evolution of humans from an anthropological perspective. Another detail that made this book a really good read is that it covered a global point of view. It focused on civilizations, communities, and artifacts from all around the world. Furthermore, the author made sure to provide modern-day examples to help readers connect to the ideas. For instance, to help the readers understand how most people do not acknowledge or accept that the order and structure in their lives are imaginary and completely man-made, the author used the example of the Coca-Cola slogan. Another really interesting point I loved in the book was how the author explained the connection between romanticism and consumerism. Essentially, the connection is how consumerism tells us that consuming products or services is what will make us happy, and romanticism is the idea that we should consume a variety of these goods and services. This results in the idea of a “market of experiences,” which is what the modern tourism industry promotes. For instance, the author explains, “Paris is not a city, nor India a country—they are both experiences.” This book was really a great read to understand anthropology through time.