Harari surveys the history of Homo sapiens from the Cognitive Revolution through the Agricultural Revolution, the unification of humankind under empires, money, and religion, and the Scientific Revolution, closing with speculation about the species' technological future.
Books mentioned in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (11)
Das Kapital by Karl Marx: “Communism too has its holy scripts and prophetic books, such as Marx's Das Kapital, which foretold that history would soon end”
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: “Huxley's vision of the future is far more troubling than George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four”
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: “In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Henry Higgins doesn't need to establish an intimate acquaintance with Eliza Doolittle”
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: “Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, wrote a tragedy called The Siege of Numantia”
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: “In Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World, published in 1932”
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: “In 1818 Mary Shelley published Frankenstein, the story of a scientist who creates an artificial being that goes out of control”
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: “In 1776 the Scottish economist Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, probably the most important economics manifesto of all time”
Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler: “Then follows a quotation from Mein Kampf: 'The person who attempts to fight the iron logic of nature...'”
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton: “And not just dinosaurs, as in Jurassic Park”
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling: “Harry Potter is a good example”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: “from the adventures of Alice in Wonderland to the paradoxes of quantum physics”