The Author (Yuval Noah Harari)

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and futurist. He lives in Jerusalem, and teaches at Hebrew University there. This is his third book, with all three of his works to s point in his career focused on considering the present and the future in terms of the past, looking at history for insights into events and circumstances and truths associated with contemporary life and how that life might evolve and change over time.

As he writes, the author’s commentary and analysis are defined and shaped by several personal qualities as well as by his academic background and research priorities. Those qualities include his being Jewish and his being in a long-term, same-sex relationship; the narrative makes reference, at different times, to both those experiences and to how they have shaped the ideas he is discussing, at least to some degree. Another of...