A wonderful book of mini-essays about changing times and predicting futures.

Harari has yet again provided us with an incredibly interesting and engaging read. This book with be going on my shopping list for future birthdays so my friends can experience it too!

What is he going to do next?

In a series of 21 essays Harari attempts to try to explain the reasoning behind everyday occurrences. The essays are wide-ranging and draw on philosophy, religion and history as well as technology, relating that to every day events. From a consideration of the moral dilemmas in programming self-driving cars to the justification of the invasion of Crimea to the prevalence of fake news Harari provokes thought in the reader. In common with his other books this one is incredibly interesting. However I would recommend that the reader dips in at random, reading it in a short time frame and consecutively did overstimulate my mind!

Unfortunately despite giving this a good try I could not get into it and struggled to digest the amount of information in each chapter.

Having examined humanity’s past in [Homo Sapiens], and questioned its potential in [Homo Deus], [Yuval Noah Harari] returns to the present in [21 Lessons] to explore some of the challenges facing our immediate future. Through a collection of essays, Harari breaks life down in to I – Technology, how our relationship with technology could affect our future, II – Political, the need to draw political stories away from old habits like nationalism, III – Despair and Hope, old and new enemies like War and Terrorism, IV – Truth, our means of examining our present, and V – Resilience, what we have in us to not let the century down.

However, if you are coming to this expecting it to be Harari’s [48 Laws of Power] style manual for navigating the 21st Century, you will be disappointed. As stated in the introduction of the book, this is much more for prompting discussion than offering solutions. Think ‘lesson’ as in Socratic Method, debating over definition, rather than a school lesson teaching exam answers.

Harari offers incisive, thought provoking opinions on the challenges that may face us in the next one hundred years. The topics up for discussion are worthy of entire books themselves so there were points were I felt ideas were glossed over, Harari indulging his notion of a biotech dependant future at the neglect of discussing the potential social, economic, or perhaps martial consequences of Climate Change. That isn’t to say the shorter essay-chapters were not interesting; his thoughts on Terrorism, how the relative safety of the modern world made an echo chamber for, statistically, the minor threat of being caught in a terrorist attack, this was a point I found the most engaging. The discussion whether our current education system is still appropriate too was a subject I wanted him to explore further. I also found these the most relevant since it could apply to next week, not in ten or fifty years’ time like some of Harari’s other suppositions.

Harari stated his aim was to promote discussion, if I walked away from each reading session continuing the discussion in my head then he certainly accomplished that. Though to meet this goal you do need to step away from the book intermittently. Every essay-chapter would end with a question that neatly segued in to the next topic. A very handy structure for an editor, but for the reader looking for some kind of conclusion, or place to reflect it was obstructive. If this were a conversation Harari would be talking over your response because he thought of another point to add.

This was the key weakness for me. His tone felt condescending, not just in pace but in the treatment. Smartphones, and social media couldn’t be mentioned without a whiff of superiority, not wholly dissimilar from the attitude some journalists hold towards ‘millennials’. When it came to his opinions on religion the cynicism verged on patronising. I couldn’t find the beats of humour, or empathy, Harari misses the James Randi charm. If you can’t explain something without sounding superior, maybe rethink the wording.

I was torn how to rate this. I might not be one of the converted preaching it as revelatory but I’m not going to tell you it’s not worth reading. It prompts introspection and for us to assess the narratives at work in our own lives, a critical thinking skill rapidly growing. Harari raised some insightful points and left me thinking about his opinions for days, yet I’m not able to see past the feeling that this was rushed, or that I could hear the echo of a thousand 4chan users sneering ‘sheeple’.

Once again, Harari shows his mastery of creating large-scale, potentially overwhelming subjects and distilling them down into bite-sized essays that make understanding complex subjects much easier for us primitive Homo Sapiens. For fans of his previous works on the future of humanity, this work is a slight departure - less of a narrative taking you through the history and future of mankind, more distinctive essays tackling meaty subjects that should concern us now. That said, Harari's way of thinking and explaining the most pressing global issues of today will help develop your thinking on these complicated subjects.

I found this book rather frustrating. I loved his previous books and looked forward to reading this one but I just couldn't warm to it. It felt disjointed and some of the "lessons" seemed rather cliched and a bit trite. The ones where I thought "oh this is interesting", then just dwindled away as there isn't enough room in this format to develop them properly. It feels like he should have lost a few and developed others more.

Recommended if you haven't read either of the author's previous in-depth books and want an introduction to his writing and thoughts.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this one, my first by this author who I’d obviously heard a lot about. I found the topics discussed and the way the author approaches them really engaging and thought-provoking, though sometimes repetitive.

Readers of Harari's previous books will know he writes about complicated topics with good humour and flair, making inaccessible concepts easier to grasp and exploring different angles. In this book, he takes 21 different themes and considers the lesson we can take for each from the 21st century, from fake news to terrorism. Some of the chapters can make for rather depressing reading, but I felt that the book ended on a positive and inspiring note. It would be hard to go into much detail in this review without writing pages and pages, but I think it's enough to say that this is a sensitively and intelligently written, thought-provoking book.

I loved Sapiens so was very excited to be approved for this. Another fascinating, insightful read from Yuval Noah Harari. I'm always thrilled to see a new title from him and can't wait to see what comes next.

Yuval Noah Harari has become one of my favorite non-fiction authors. I have read Sapiens and had immediately bought the paperback copies for Sapiens and Homo Deus. My husband has read both Sapiens and Homo Deus and both books are just great conversation starters. We have stayed up late into nights with our drinks on weekends, discussing the subjects covered in both books.

So when I had an opportunity to read an ARC for 21 Lessons for the 21st Century from Netgalley, I was delighted!!

There are some common themes in all three of the books, that some people might find repetitive. But if you can ignore that, this third installment of essays and discussions on what we can try to do to prepare for the future, felt very relevant and made for an interesting read. I also love the fact that he conveys some very complex subjects in an easy to read manner and has a very good structure to his book. Add to that the tons of references and the amount of research his team has done for him to complete all the three books, just makes you admire him and his team and the books a lot more.

Now Yuval Harai is not a philosopher and he is not a monk or a Godman. He is a scientist. He will give you facts with evidence carried out from research. And then he tries to extrapolate this into probable future scenarios. However, this is not to be taken as a totality. He himself says this in his books, that his predictions are based on current trends and some speculation.

However, in this third book, he does give us an insight on what he thinks we could focus on to prepare for the future. Which political framework will work? What society model will work? Who will the future biases be on? How do we prepare for economic sustainability based on technological disruptions? What skills should we impart our children with? What ethical and philosophical models are available to us to answer life's big questions? We get the different options and the author's own preference. However, there are a lot of unanswered questions too, but that is normal isn't it? No one today has the answers to everything really.

I really enjoyed reading this book and in general would recommend all three of Yuval Noah Harari's books to anyone looking for an interesting non fiction read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also everything that I aspire to be but am too weak-willed to achieve: an incredibly researched individual who practises meditation for two hours every day, is vegan and stays away from social media (I mean, he doesn’t even own a smartphone anymore).
21 Lessons for the 21st Century takes a deep look at the current world and where it’s headed. Whereas in his previous works (namely Sapiens and Homo Deus) Harari mainly focused on the past and future of humankind, this new book is rather geared towards the present. It explores various domains: the advance of technology, the pros and cons of different political regimes, the rises of terrorism and immigration, and even topics such as religions and science-fiction. The extent of his knowledge on all these various topics is mind-blowing and it all makes so much sense when someone takes the time to explain! He is obviously very knowledgeable in matters of history, science and politics, but also social sciences: how humans work both inwardly and with each other.
This book made me feel very clever at times (when I could relate to a topic) or very stupid (when reading about things I don’t know much about) and just generally woke. It’s also made me feel a balance of emotions: from despair (questioning the point of carrying on when the world is headed towards some dark places) to hope and feeling inspired that humans can find their peace and adapt to the changes to come and just try and have an enjoyable ride while they’re here.
It is an essential read for everyone but mainly for the younger generations, the ones facing an uncertain future, at least to act as a forewarning that maybe we should start thinking about the world differently and be ready to adapt to whatever comes. However I will admit that the book is a lot to take in so it might be worth taking your time reading it (and not cramming it into your brain in under a week, like I tend to do) in order to better absorb all of the information. Or just read it a few times.
It is an unconventional read and very far from my comfort zone, even in terms of non-fiction, but as someone who takes interest in the direction of the world and how to make it a better place, I really enjoyed it.

I read this as soon as a copy landed in my hands!. If you’ve read Sapiens and Homo Deus, you will appreciate the urgency with which I poured over these pages. I love Yuval’s work and his writing. His ability to convey complex historical and scientific theory about the human race, how we think, how we’ve evolved, and how we are likely to develop in the new technological age is awesome. His writing is fascinating, sometimes scary, but also so easy to grasp.

And so we have 21 Lessons, a series of essays – ‘lessons’ – that look to examine that gap between where we are now and where Yuval thinks the human race is heading, as laid out in Homo Deus. These lessons look at how ill-prepared we are today to challenge and successfully navigate a future that will see Homo Sapiens expire to be replaced (if we are lucky enough to survive climate change) with a technological human hybrid. Nationalism, brain hacking, the emergence of an era where there will be few jobs for any of us, and the underrated ability of the human race to do stupid things…. It’s a sobering read, 21 Lessons, but a necessary one.

OMG this is a brilliant and utterly fascinating traits on what life and humanity might be like in the mid 21st Centurt. The author makes many references to 2050 but despite his very readable and eloquently put theories it is difficult to envisage his "realities" in such a short time frame. He suggests that the changes in the next 3 or 4 decades are likely to be bigger than those of the last 3 or 4 centuries if not more.

He divides the book, as the title suggest into 21 characteristics or components of humanity. Some have more resonance than others. His definition of life in 2050 requires the individual to encompass wide changes in reality and to re-invent himself to make this work. The section on AI is particularly interesting. What will the robotics industry do to society? Will there be anyone who can follow a profession for life? Will we need to continually re invent ourselves? Will this marginalise different sections of the population and if so how can that effect be ameliorated? I might not agree with all his philosophies but they definitely make interesting reading.

What will be our most valuable in the future? Harari suggests this might be Data but which data and how trustworthy will it be. He develops this argument later in the book in his examination of Truth, ignorance and post-truth. How long has fake news been part of our lives? Is this new or evident in history.

I struggled most with his discussions around Religion, God and Secularism perhaps because of differences in our belief systems

It is always difficult to absorb a non-fiction book in one sitting but this is certainly better than many others. Moreover, it is one I would have no difficulty dipping in and out of at a later date. I don't think it has to be read in order and I would like to re read the sections on Community and Nationalism.

This was an ARC and I am extremely grateful to net galley for the opportunity to read and review. I found it difficult to access the notations on kindle and I wouldn't say no to a hardcopy - perhaps i should put it on my christmas list

Yuval Noah Harari, author of 'Sapiens', which looked at the history of mankind and 'Homo Deus' which looked to the future, is back with '21 Lessons for the 21st Century' a book which very much explores present day issues. As I enjoyed his previous two books I was excited to delve into this collection to see how it would compare. Just as accessible as the others it discusses important topical issues such as fake news, immigration, terrorism, and climate change, to name but a few. I found each topic provided just the right amount of detail without overwhelming the reader, a fine balancing act if ever there was one!

Each chapter flows beautifully into the next, and alongside the various topics are lots of citations. There is no doubt that Harari is an excellent writer, and here he has meticulously researched each of the "lessons". There is certainly a lot of thought-provoking material included in this book, and I can imagine it being of interest to a great many people. This is most likely destined to be another bestseller! With the sheer amount of hard work that has gone into it, and the honesty it provides, it certainly deserves to be.

Many thanks to Jonathan Cape for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This interesting book invites the reader to understand and get better prepared for the coming of revolutionary new technologies and their effects on mankind.
These new technologies,including the merger of infotech and biotechnology,nanotechnology in robotics and Big Data algorithms,will replace countless jobs and professions currently in existence.People will have to learn new skills and regularly change jobs but there will still be mass unemployment.
Under these circumstances,the book explores the new challenges for political organisations and governments ,as well as the ongoing threat of climate change and its consequences.
These difficult issues affect us all ,and the author invites us to a global conversation with the aim of unlocking our individual responsibilities and potential to help find a solution .
The book is very well written and makes these very complex issues easy to understand.Highly recommended reading.

I very much enjoyed the informative and easy to access information of Sapiens by this author he definitely has a way of writing that grips you and navigates you through even the most difficult theoretical ideas. This book was harder in some ways to follow because a lot of it is theory and based on future proposals but it was nevertheless interesting and thought provoking. You can see how things like AI, technology and political movements are transforming presently to become the challenges that Harari predicts for the rest of the century. It is depressing reading at times, but we know the hard facts of climate change and a growing world population are heading in that direction. There wasn't so much solutions put forward rather than past examples cycled to predict outcomes but that in itself remains to be seen.

I thought this was a really important read.

It was interesting and insightful, well researched and gives really clear explanations for more confusing concepts.

The book openly discusses important issues facing humankind - including (but not limited to) human rights, liberalism, conservatism, religion and terrorism, alongside tech- and scientific advances.

It discusses historical events and how these have influenced events today. It is non-judegemental and I particularly liked that it doesn't attempt to persuade the reader into following any particular point of view.

The book makes you really think about what being human means and speculates on what human might mean in the future.

The books was well written and very readable,
I would strongly recommend it.

Harari just has a way of writing that makes it so easy to read, other books in this genre can feel heavy going and irrelevant to you. However Harari connects with the reader giving his insights into the changing nature of world politics and how the rise of AI and biotechnology are having and are going to have such a major impact on humankind. I like the way that humour is used and there is many a wry smile to be had here and the passion of the writer comes through so strongly. The book contains a lot of things that make you think and if it does nothing more than that then it is a success. This book deserves to be read by a wide audience and decision makers around the world should be made to read it!
#21lessonsForThe21stCentury #NetGalley

Harari is a force of nature. I am not normally a non-fiction reader but like so many other readers I was compelled to pick up his books after so much hype and found them to exceed my expectations! Highly recommended!

Impressive in that it doesn't flop as trilogy finals usually do. This is a controlled, well thought out construction and definitely makes you think more than you normally would do.