How Yuval Noah Harari captivated the world | | |
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Yuval Noah Harari’s ascent to global fame was not predictable. He was a low-profile history professor at Hebrew University in Israel before his book, “Sapiens”, about the whole of human existence, was translated into English in 2014 (some three years after its publication in Israel). Yet he has gone on to become one of the best-known historians in, well, history, selling 45m copies of his books in 65 languages. His work has been praised by some of the most influential Homo sapiens around, from Barack Obama to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
His latest book, “Nexus”, has just come out, and my colleague Tom Standage
reviews it this week.
Mr Harari takes on a question sure to be on the minds of anyone who watched the American presidential debate this week—of truth and how to filter out falsehoods. As he does in “Sapiens”, he looks at people’s predisposition to collective mythmaking; he also delves into some of the risks of AI, as he did in his book about humans’ and technology’s future, “Homo Deus”.
Whether or not you’re inclined to pick up a copy of “Nexus”, it is worth considering what makes Mr Harari such a successful author. To me his status as an intellectual rock star is a reminder that simple writing can make or break a career. He has a gift for reducing complicated ideas and events spanning tens of thousands of years into taut, original and comprehensible sentences. Like Malcolm Gladwell, who has popularised concepts such as “10,000 hours” (the amount of practice needed to turn a novice into an expert), Mr Harari not only makes complex subjects accessible, but tackles subjects that people care about.
Some criticise both Mr Harari and Mr Gladwell for oversimplification. But Mr Harari has plenty of high-powered devotees. When I was covering and living in Silicon Valley, I was surprised by how many in the tech industry read, followed and wined and dined Mr Harari, despite his message about tech’s effects being so doom-laden. But techies like reducing huge issues into simpler concepts and potential solutions; in that way, they are intellectual bedfellows with Mr Harari. (They have pastimes in common, too: Mr Harari, like many executives, is fond of absconding to silent meditation retreats. Mr Harari spends at least a month a year on one.)
Many techies are also existentialists who think people can change the course of history with their choices and innovations. In this way they also jive with Mr Harari’s worldview: that humans’ march to the top of the animal kingdom was not predetermined. It came about because of people’s ingenuity—and some luck. That is equally true of Mr Harari’s rise.
Are you a fan of Mr Harari’s work? Who are your favourite writers of “big history”? Write to us at plottwist@economist.com. Thanks to those who shared their favourite films about a brand or company. Dan Toews recommends “BlackBerry” (2023) about the titular technology company. Marianne Dunklin suggests “The Smartest Guys in the Room” (2005), a documentary about the collapse of Enron.
Elsewhere in The Economist this week: | | |
Editor’s picks
Must-reads this week | | |
The Economist recommends
What to read, see and listen to | | |
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What to see: “Why Am I So Single?” at the Garrick Theatre in London. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss scored a massive hit with their debut musical, “Six”: the bold, bright retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s wives is being performed across the world. The difficulty of following that smash up is, in part, the subject of their new musical. “Why Am I So Single?” is also a paean to friendship and a sweary lament about the awfulness of dating in the internet age. Those themes have been tackled before, but few will mind given the sharp wit and catchy songs.
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More to see: “Van Gogh: Poets at Lovers”
at the National Gallery in London. The painter imagined his “Sunflowers” would travel. He thought a pair of the yellow artworks might one day adorn the cabin of a ship and bring comfort to homesick sailors. After van Gogh’s death in 1890 the flowers did indeed journey—to art museums across the world. This exhibition reunites pictures he wanted to send to sea. The flowers are accompanied by works from the last two years of his life, a kaleidoscope of colour and rebellious modernism. “Starry Night over the Rhône” is dreamlike; “The Olive Trees” is sweeping and sublime. Many paintings have travelled across oceans for the show, a fact that would have delighted their creator.
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What to watch: “Slow Horses”, streaming on Apple TV+. As a character actor, Gary Oldman is peerless, so it makes sense that he has found a rich vein playing spies: as John le Carré’s cautious, reserved George Smiley in 2011, and now as Jackson Lamb, the seedy, flatulent, savvy centre of “Slow Horses”, which just began its fourth season. The series is a brilliantly plotted, full-employment programme for British thespians. Kristin Scott Thomas and James Callis bounce chilly, ophidian competence and self-righteous scheming off each other, while Jonathan Pryce is owlishly confused—except when he’s not. Great fun.
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