History · Similar reads
Books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
The best books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind are Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Thinking, Fast and Slow. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is about history, evolution, cognition. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Yuval Noah Harari · History
Homo Deus picks up where Sapiens left off, but turns to face the other direction.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Jared Diamond · Science
Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?
Both dig into civilization.
Read the summary → - Thinking, Fast and Slow
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Daniel Kahneman · Psychology
Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary →
- The Selfish Gene
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Richard Dawkins · Science
The Selfish Gene reframes evolution from the organism's point of view to the gene's.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - A Brief History of Time
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Stephen Hawking · Science
A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking's attempt to explain the biggest questions in physics — where the universe came from, how it behaves, and where it might be going — to readers with no scientific training.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson · Memoir
Isabel Wilkerson's second book proposes a reframing of American racial hierarchy: rather than thinking of racism primarily as prejudice, she argues that the United States has operated as a caste society, with Black Americans at the bottom of a rigidly maintained hierarchy similar in its structure — though different in its specific mechanisms — to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany.
Shares history and power with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Read the summary → - Cosmos
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Carl Sagan · Science
Cosmos is Carl Sagan's attempt to tell the full story of the universe and humanity's place in it — from the Big Bang to the origins of life to the rise of science as a way of knowing.
Shares evolution and civilization with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Read the summary → - On the Genealogy of Morality
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Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy
On the Genealogy of Morality is Nietzsche's most rigorously argued work — three sustained essays that trace the historical origins of moral concepts he believes we have inherited without examining.
Shares history and power with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Read the summary → - The Language Instinct
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Steven Pinker · Science
The Language Instinct is Steven Pinker's argument that language is not a cultural invention but a biological instinct — a specialized module in the human brain that evolved by natural selection, much as the eye evolved to see or the hand evolved to grasp.
Shares evolution and cognition with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Read the summary → - A People's History of the United States
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A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn · History
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, first published in 1980, retells American history from the perspective of those who rarely appear in conventional textbooks: Native Americans, enslaved people, industrial workers, women, immigrants, and dissidents of various kinds.
Both dig into power.
Read the summary → - Annals of Imperial Rome
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Tacitus · History
Tacitus wrote the Annals in the early second century CE as a history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the death of Nero — the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, covering roughly 14 to 68 CE.
Both dig into power.
Read the summary → - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
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Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Charles Mackay · History
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, published by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay in 1841, is one of the most quoted books in financial history despite being primarily a work of popular history and entertainment.
Both dig into history.
Read the summary →
Books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind: quick answers
What are the best books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind?
The best books like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari are Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, such as history, evolution, cognition.
What should I read after Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind?
A natural next read after Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. A kindred history read. Other strong choices are Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.
What books are similar to Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind centers on history, evolution, cognition. Books with a similar feel include Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
