View a FREE sample

1. For what purpose does the author include a table at the start of the text that presents a timeline of human history?

Prior to the start of the narrative of Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari chooses to include a table that lays out major events over the course of human history. Harari includes this piece of ephemera in order to foreshadow for the readers the categories his book will use to analyze the patterns within humanity's history. He also includes a section in the table labeled Future, alerting the readers to the fact that he will eventually be discussing not only the history of humans, but our collective future.

2. What chain of events does Harari name as eventually leading to the appearance of the species Homo sapiens?

13.5 billion years ago, matter and energy came into being with the Big Bang. This was the beginning of physics. 300,000 years later, more complex substances, whose properties and interactions are described by chemistry, emerged. 3.8 billion years ago, life appeared, heralding the beginning of biology.

(read all 60 Short Essay Questions and Answers)

This section contains 5,648 words (approx. 19 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample