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Almost finished Sapians and have really enjoyed it.
I always want to read a lot more than I actually do and finding a suitable book is usually the key! I have Homo Deus which I'll read next (No spoilers please!)
Any tips for anything else in the same area? Possibly an easy/beginners guide to economics?
I have a copy of 'Thinking fast and Slow' which I've tried to start about 4 times, I'e been thinking about 'Mistakes were made but not by me'
I'm never really that sure what area/field all these books are in! I do find them the most readable though as there's usually something I've learn along the way that sticks for a while.
I didn't finish that. I felt that guy was trying to forcibly convince me of his ideas and value judgements. A bit like being on STW but for 1,000 pages.
Try Dominion by Tom Holland, and The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama. The latter is meticulous but fascinating. I haven't finished either yet but plan to.
A fairly simple handbook for economics is 'Cracking Economics' by Tejvan Pettinger. I only found this book by googling his name as he has the KOM for a hillclimb near Swindon and I thought I recognised it. I didn't, but he turned out to be an economist....
Get the prequel: "Homos".
Adam Rutherfords books
A Brief History of Everyone who ever lived
and The Book of Humans
he has a much better grasp of genetics that Harari
Any tips for anything else in the same area?
which is what? The problem with Harari is that it goes all over the place.
which is what? The problem with Harari is that it goes all over the place.
Yeah that's where I'm a bit stuck! Does it come under a vague Social Science area?
Thanks for all the other recommendations, I'll take a look
. I felt that guy was trying to forcibly convince me of his ideas and value judgements.
Very much this. Didn't like his the author's style at all.
In a similar vein take a look at Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond.
I got given Collapse by Diamond. Didn't finish it cos it was too boring. Civilisations collapse because they over-exploit resources, yes, we get it. Don't need endless smashing home of the same point for hundreds of pages.
It read as if I was a PhD assessor trying to pick holes in his thesis. But I just want a good read...
It's possible this combative style is a US thing for popular history books. I know the Sapiens guy is Israeli but I think he may have been US educated or at least influenced.
Yup, Collapse I've read a well and it does feel like it repeats itself, but Guns, Germs and Steel is much better.
In a similar vein take a look at Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
I do get a bit frustrated that this one comes up a lot. It is well written, and it's very persuasive, but it's full of uncritical thinking and terrible conclusion, and a lack of evidence and I'd suggest reading the volumes of criticism that followed it on publication to get a more nuanced and balanced view
Like Molgrips PhD assesor, I'd be giving a very hard time.
SPQR, I really liked Sapiens and while Mary Beard's book may appear to have a narrower focus, at the core it's a book about people.
My eyes were opened to being more critical of these history books after I'd read 1421 by Gavin Menzies in which he proposes that the Chinese navigator Zheng He discovered the new world and did all sorts of amazing things. I thought it brilliant and a great book until I read a load of proper historians trashing it online and realised I'd been fooled.
Thanks all, I've just added quite a few of the above to the list.
The Revenge of Geography - Robert D. Kaplan, chief geopolitical analyst for Stratfor.
The Silk Roads by Peter Francopan
Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
Into a possible future with Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark