{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "kind": "BooksRedditRecommendationReceipt",
  "id": "booksreddit:recommendation-receipt:sapiens",
  "book": {
    "slug": "sapiens",
    "title": "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind",
    "author": "Yuval Noah Harari",
    "authors": [
      "Yuval Noah Harari"
    ],
    "first_published": 2011
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://booksreddit.com/book/sapiens/",
  "receipt_anchor_url": "https://booksreddit.com/book/sapiens/#recommendation-receipt",
  "evidence_urls": {
    "json": "https://booksreddit.com/evidence/sapiens.json",
    "markdown": "https://booksreddit.com/evidence/sapiens.md"
  },
  "consensus": "Twelve mentions across two subreddits over seven years — 11 of them in r/AskHistorians — and the pattern is consistent: *Sapiens* comes up not as a recommendation but as an exhibit. When someone cites Harari's Cognitive Revolution argument or his framing of agricultural history, an r/AskHistorians mod or high-rep commenter appears to explain what he got wrong.",
  "read_if": "Read it if you want a fast map of the territory before going deeper — just treat it as orientation, not authority. If you're the person who cited 'something I read in Sapiens' in an r/AskHistorians thread, you've already seen how that goes. Academic readers in history or anthropology will find the errors too distracting to enjoy the framing.",
  "skip_if": "r/AskHistorians links Harari's name to a dedicated wiki entry under 'dubious scholarship' — that's not a casual dismissal.",
  "strongest_evidence": {
    "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
    "excerpt": "[continued] Anyway, that's sort of the basic overview of arguments about this. This is still a very hotly-contested area of anthropology and history. I have little doubt that we do not have the full picture here — that there is much more to learn, and that there is much that will be forever lost to…",
    "score": 226,
    "sentiment": 0,
    "published_at": "2022-05-07T18:28:37+00:00",
    "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ukarat/why_have_humans_been_around_for_200000_years_yet/i7pevvu/"
  },
  "dissent": {
    "editorial_caveat": "r/AskHistorians links Harari's name to a dedicated wiki entry under 'dubious scholarship' — that's not a casual dismissal.",
    "negative_source_excerpt": {
      "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
      "excerpt": "Pop history of the *Sapiens* breed is difficult to judge from an academic standpoint because its goals are so radically different from those of original scholarship. *Should* someone write a single book on all of history? Most historians would tell you \"No.\" But Harari has gone and done it, and we m…",
      "score": 191,
      "sentiment": -0.4,
      "published_at": "2020-08-26T04:06:48+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/igfkv5/is_sapiens_by_yuval_noah_harari_accurate/g2vmkdt/"
    }
  },
  "sample": {
    "total_mentions": 12,
    "unique_commenters": 9,
    "published_quote_count": 8,
    "average_sentiment": -0.44,
    "subreddits": [
      {
        "name": "AskHistorians",
        "mentions": 11,
        "average_sentiment": -0.5,
        "last_seen": "2024-11-18"
      }
    ]
  },
  "updated_at": "2026-06-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "sources": [
    {
      "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
      "excerpt": "[continued] Anyway, that's sort of the basic overview of arguments about this. This is still a very hotly-contested area of anthropology and history. I have little doubt that we do not have the full picture here — that there is much more to learn, and that there is much that will be forever lost to…",
      "score": 226,
      "sentiment": 0,
      "published_at": "2022-05-07T18:28:37+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ukarat/why_have_humans_been_around_for_200000_years_yet/i7pevvu/"
    },
    {
      "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
      "excerpt": "Pop history of the *Sapiens* breed is difficult to judge from an academic standpoint because its goals are so radically different from those of original scholarship. *Should* someone write a single book on all of history? Most historians would tell you \"No.\" But Harari has gone and done it, and we m…",
      "score": 191,
      "sentiment": -0.4,
      "published_at": "2020-08-26T04:06:48+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/igfkv5/is_sapiens_by_yuval_noah_harari_accurate/g2vmkdt/"
    },
    {
      "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
      "excerpt": "The person you were talking to was using arguments popularized by Yuval Noah Harari in his book *Sapiens*. The book is not well-regarded in anthropological and historical circles. See the post by u/CommodoreCoCo in [this thread](",
      "score": 126,
      "sentiment": -0.6,
      "published_at": "2022-11-13T17:51:38+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/yu3vo5/how_egalitarian_were_hunter_gatherers_and_tribal/iw80r7q/"
    },
    {
      "subreddit": "AskHistorians",
      "excerpt": "This started as a response to something else in the thread but grew into its own. There's a lot of books I could write about here. Any of Graham Hancock's books, for instance, have the dubious distinction of being among the few books available at any Barnes & Nobles that actually mention any of the …",
      "score": 101,
      "sentiment": -0.7,
      "published_at": "2023-01-24T00:11:45+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10iunfq/what_pop_history_book_has_done_the_most_damage_to/j5m80ts/"
    }
  ],
  "methodology_url": "https://booksreddit.com/methodology/",
  "limitations": [
    "Mention counts describe the tracked Reddit sample, not every Reddit comment or every reader.",
    "Average sentiment summarizes sampled discussion and is not a star rating.",
    "Editorial consensus, reader fit, and caveats are derived from the existing sourced book synthesis."
  ]
}