Harari has published multiple books and articles, including
Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100–1550;
The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture, 1450–2000; ''The Concept of 'Decisive Battles' in World History
; and Armchairs, Coffee and Authority: Eye-witnesses and Flesh-witnesses Speak about War, 1100–2000''. His book
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind was originally published in Hebrew in 2011 based on the 20 lectures of an undergraduate world history class he was teaching. It was then released in English in 2014 and has since been translated into some 45 languages. The book surveys the entire length of
human history, starting from the evolution of
Homo sapiens in the
Stone Age. Harari compares
indigenous peoples to
apes in his
fall of man narrative, leading up to the political and technological revolutions of the 21st century. The
Hebrew edition became a bestseller in Israel, and generated much interest among the general public. Joseph Drew wrote that "
Sapiens provides a wide-ranging and thought-provoking introduction for students of comparative civilization," considering it as a work that "highlights the importance and wide expanse of the social sciences." In 2016 at the
Davos Forum, Harari was the originator of the idea that, as a result of the
Fourth Industrial Revolution, "humanity will be divided between a superelite of improved humans and a mass of 'useless people and that "power is in the hands of those who control the algorithms". He returned to the theme in an October 2017 interview with ''
People's Daily Online'' to which he said: Harari's follow-up book,
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, was published in 2016 and examines the possibilities for the future of
Homo sapiens. The book's premise outlines that, in the future, humanity is likely to make a significant attempt to gain happiness, immortality and God-like powers. The book goes on to openly speculate various ways this ambition might be realised for
Homo sapiens in the future based on the past and present. Among several possibilities for the future, Harari develops the term
dataism for a philosophy or mindset that worships
big data. Writing in
The New York Times Book Review,
Siddhartha Mukherjee stated that although the book "fails to convince me entirely," he considers it "essential reading for those who think about the future." Harari's book,
21 Lessons for the 21st Century, (2018), focused more on present-day concerns. A review in the
New Statesman commented on what it called "risible moral dictums littered throughout the text", criticised Harari's writing style and stated that he was "trafficking in pointless asides and excruciating banalities."
Kirkus Reviews praised the book as a "tour de force" and described it as a "highly instructive exploration of current affairs and the immediate future of human societies." In 2019, Harari was criticised for allowing several omissions and amendments in the Russian edition of his third book
21 Lessons for the 21st Century, using a softer tone when speaking about Russian authorities.
Leonid Bershidsky in
The Moscow Times called it "caution—or, to call it by its proper name, cowardice", and Nettanel Slyomovics in
Haaretz claimed that "he is sacrificing those same liberal ideas that he presumes to represent". In a response, Harari stated that he "was warned that due to these few examples Russian censorship will not allow distribution of a Russian translation of the book" and that he "therefore faced a dilemma," namely to "replace these few examples with other examples, and publish the book in Russia," or "change nothing, and publish nothing," and that he "preferred publishing, because Russia is a leading global power and it seemed important that the book's ideas should reach readers in Russia, especially as the book is still very critical of the Putin regime—just without naming names." In 2020 the first volume of his graphic adaptation of
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,
Sapiens: A Graphic History – The Birth of Humankind, co-authored with David Vandermeulen and Daniel Casanave
, was published and launched at a livestream event organised by How to Academy and
Penguin Books. In 2022, Harari's book,
Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World, illustrated by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz, was published and is a "Story of Human History — for Kids." In fewer than 200 pages of child-friendly language, Harari covers the same content as his best-selling book
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, but "he has simplified the presentation for this younger audience without dumbing it down." This book is "the first of four planned volumes." == Critical reception ==