When nomadic Homo sapiens settled to live in one place, they started working harder and harder. But why didn’t they get a better life in return?

In The Pillars of Civilization, Yuval Noah Harari and his companions including Prof. Saraswati and Dr. Fiction travel the length and breadth of human history to investigate how the Agricultural Revolution changed society forever. Discover how wheat took over the world, how war, famine, disease and inequality became a part of the human condition, and why we might only have ourselves to blame.

The origins of modern farming are told through Elizabethan tragedy, the changing fortunes of domesticated plants and animals are tracked in the columns of the Daily Business News, and the history of inequality is revealed in a superhero detective story.

A radical, witty and colourful retelling of the story of humankind, adapted from Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Volume 2 can be read as a standalone or as a follow-up to Volume 1, The Birth of Humankind.

Praise for Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens:

‘I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.’ Bill Gates

‘Interesting and It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth’ Barack Obama

‘Jaw-dropping from the first word to the It may be the best book I’ve ever read’ Chris Evans

‘Contains a remarkable piece of information on almost every page and reminds us that we should be grateful to be human.’ Matt Haig

‘Sweeps the cobwebs out of your Radiates power and clarity, making the world strange and new’ Sunday Times