WE may think we know a lot about our own species - homo sapiens.

But put into a historical perspective, we only know a miniscule amount about our history and other species of sapiens which walked the earth before and alongside us.

Why did the other species die out? Were we more advanced and intelligent or were they more vulnerable? What conflicts took place between the species?

Yuval Noah Harari has called the book ‘Sapiens: Brief History of Humankind’ and this explains to us how vast our history is.

Whatever questions you have about how we became who we are today, this book will probably answer them.

In this four-hundred-page book, a lot is covered – but this is only brief, meaning that there is a lot more to be discovered.

He goes into detail while explaining our history, often linking it to how we are influenced from our past and inclined to do certain things.

Homo Sapiens have undergone a series of revolutions through their history.

Embedded into our history is the rise of our religions and other momentous events, such as the rise of empires and capitalism. However vast and informative these matters are, Harari engages us well.

If you are looking for a book with detailed, alternative ideas, then this is the one to read because Harari raises many ideas up for discussion, such as 'the agricultural revolution was history's biggest fraud.'

Harari explains how the agricultural revolution encouraged the things like hierarchy and starvation.

From this book we can understand in detail how things that began small have such large impacts. He opens our minds and shows us things that we probably would not have thought of.

I think that Harari needs congratulating on how he presents his thoughts. He has presented us his views on life as we know it and aided us to make connections between how life used to be, life today and life in the future, as well as learn from previous mistakes and widen our knowledge.

By James Sullivan