Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 2: The Pillars of Civilization

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

This second volume of Sapiens: A Graphic History, the full-color graphic adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari’s #1 New York Times bestseller, focuses on the Agricultural Revolution―when humans fell into a trap we’ve yet to escape: working harder and harder with diminishing returns.

What if humanity’s major woes―war, plague, famine and inequality―originated 12,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens converted from nomads to settlers, in pursuit of the fantasy of productivity and efficiency? What if by seeking to control plants and animals, humans ended up being controlled by kings, priests, and Kafkaesque bureaucracy? Volume 2 of Sapiens: A Graphic History–The Pillars of Civilization explores a crucial chapter in human development: the Agricultural Revolution. This is the story of how wheat took over the world; how an unlikely marriage between a god and a bureaucrat created the first empires; and how war, plague, famine, and inequality became an intractable feature of the human condition.

But it’s not all doom and gloom with this book’s cast of entertaining characters and colorful humorous scenes. Yuval, Zoe, Prof. Saraswati, Cindy and Bill (now farmers), Detective Lopez, and Dr. Fiction, all introduced in Volume 1, once again travel the length and breadth of human history, this time investigating the impact the Agricultural Revolution has had on our species. The cunning Mephisto shows them how to ensnare humans, King Hammurabi lays down the law, and Confucius explains harmonious society. The origins of modern farming are introduced through Elizabethan tragedy; the changing fortunes of domesticated plants and animals are tracked in the columns of the Daily Business News; the story of urbanization is portrayed as a travel brochure, offering discount journeys to ancient Babylon and China; and the history of inequality unfolds in a superhero detective story; with guest appearances by historical and cultural personalities throughout such as Thomas Jefferson, Scarlett O'Hara, Margaret Thatcher, and John Lennon.

Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 2 is a radical, witty and colorful retelling of the story of humankind for adults and young adults, and can be read on its own or in sequence with Volume I.

This unique graphic history reveals the story of civilization in a way you’ve never seen before:

• The Agricultural Revolution: See why humanity’s shift from nomads to settlers was a trap we’re still living in, with wheat as the unlikely villain.
• Nonfiction Comic Storytelling: Follow the recurring cast of characters―including Yuval, Zoe, and Detective Lopez―as they meet historical figures from King Hammurabi to Thomas Jefferson.
• Accessible Pop Science: Understand complex ideas about war, famine, and inequality through witty, full-color illustrations, from superhero detective stories to Elizabethan tragedies.
• Ancient History Demystified: Explore the origins of modern farming, empires, and bureaucracy in a radical, funny, and unforgettable retelling of our shared story.

Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling historian and philosopher, is considered one of the world’s most influential intellectuals today. His popular books―including Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, and the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us―have sold more than fifty million copies in sixty-five languages. Harari, with his husband, Itzik Yahav, cofounded Sapienship, a social impact company with projects in the fields of education and storytelling, whose main goal is to tell and retell our shared human story. Harari has a PhD in history from the University of Oxford. He has been a lecturer at the Department of History in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.