Nexus

History

First published: 2024
Print length: 544 pagesRandom House Trade Paperbacks, 2025

Description

Nexus traces how information networks have shaped human societies and the wider world across history. Yuval Noah Harari moves from the Stone Age through religion, witch-hunts, totalitarianism, and contemporary populism, while examining the relationships among information, truth, bureaucracy, mythology, wisdom, and power. The book asks how humanity’s immense power has contributed to an existential crisis and considers present threats including ecological collapse and the spread of misinformation. It also explores the dangers and choices associated with artificial or non-human intelligence. By linking these current concerns to a long historical account, Harari presents information networks as central forces in human organization and power.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Essayistic

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Philosophical · Unsettling

Structure

Argumentative · Chronological nonfiction

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

Knowledge and truthMoralityNature and environmentPolitics and ideologyPowerTechnology and society

About Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and popular science writer who teaches history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His books combine history, biology, philosophy, politics, and technology in broad accounts of how human societies acquire coherence and power. Storytelling is a recurring concern: in Sapiens, shared narratives help explain the rise of large societies alongside changes in cognition, agriculture, empire, and science. Harari also examines free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness, and suffering as historical and philosophical problems. His later work turns these questions toward technology. Homo Deus considers how biotechnology, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and data systems could alter authority, while Nexus places non-human intelligence and misinformation within a longer history of information networks. This scale and cross-disciplinary method distinguish his work as a popular historian.

Books by Yuval Noah Harari

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Language: English
ISBN: 9780593734230

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