I finished this today, my nearest and dearest will be glad to hear, since I’ve been summarising it for them, section by section – because how could they not want to know? I have a few quibbles: Harari devotes very little time to art, surely one of sapiens’ greatest achievements; logicians have not, as he says, been completely relegated to philosophy departments – many have been absorbed into computer science research and contribute to the intelligent design he believes is shaping our future; and to state that ‘the Industrial Revolution brought about…the disintegration of patriarchy’ is glib, to say the least. But in a work of this breadth, which achieves such breath-taking perspective, glibness here and there can be forgiven.