history Book Summaries

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the life story of one of the Founding Fathers of America. Franklin is often described as a "self-made man" and "The First American" because of his lifelong dedication to values like enthusiastic work, self-education and personal improvement.

The True Believer shows how the same human frustrations drive all mass movements—whether social, political or religious. People join mass movements to escape their ineffectual and helpless individual self. Eric Hoffer wrote this book 70 years ago, but it's still frighteningly relevant today.

Sapiens is about how we went from being simple primates 2.5 million years ago... to walking on the moon. Yuval Noah Harari explores the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions, which made us who we are today. He says common myths like money, laws and nations hold human societies together.

Food of the Gods says psilocybin mushrooms were responsible for the unusually fast evolutionary growth of the human brain. Also it talks about how our relationships to psychoactive plants (including caffeine, sugar and alcohol) shaped human cultures. Finally, how we may restore personal, social and ecological balance in the world.