Yuval Harari

Needed to get this off my chest. This rant was brought on by a recent article in The New Yorker on Yuval Harari.  Please note that even though I linked to the article - I'm not recommending it as I barely made it a third of the way through before quitting in distaste.

Also please note that Harari's book Sapiens deserves all the praise and accolades it has received. I enjoyed that book very much and may even read it a second time. It is a well written Reader's Digest explanation of the history of mankind. How else would you describe all of human history condensed into a couple hundred pages?

However, unlike other celebrity historians before him, such as Stephen Ambrose, Harari and his now staff of twelve isn't necessarily sticking to history. Instead he's projecting into the future using his "current place in world affairs" "between Madonna and Steven Pinker" to sell books to people I think will never read them. In my mind that screams out "Charlatan!"

I enjoyed Sapiens but I have neither the time nor inclination to read Harari's other books.

So endeth the rant.