Summary

Chapter 19 discusses the concept of happiness and how scholars examine it in their work. Harari notes that historians rarely address whether or not humans have become happier throughout history. When they do, some argue that the ever increasing capabilities of the human race mean that it has become happier over time. Harari’s earlier chapters show that this is not always the case. Other historians claim that we have become progressively unhappier as we have strayed from our original forager lifestyle. Harari rejects this view as well, noting that modern humans enjoy obvious advances, such as modern medicine. In reality, he states, the answer to this question falls between the two extremes. While peasants were unhappier than their forager predecessors, modern humans have become better at using our advanced capabilities to provide a genuinely better lifestyle, particularly over the last 150 years. He...