F75E Sapiens II - The Agricultural Revolution (Zoom; OLLI @ UofA)
Zoom | Available (Membership Required)
This course is the second in a planned four-course sequence based on Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. The sequence can be taken in order or independently. This course focuses on Part Two of Harari’s book, the Agricultural Revolution and its consequences - one of the most consequential and most debated transformations in human history. Beginning with the first agricultural communities in the ancient Near East around 10,000 BCE, the course traces the emergence of villages, cities, kingdoms, and empires, examining what farming made possible and what it cost the people who adopted it. Along the way we consider how hierarchies, laws, and religions emerged as tools for holding complex societies together, how writing transformed human memory and administration, and how Harari builds his case that the Agricultural Revolution was not a liberation but a trap - one that most of humanity has never fully escaped. The course closes at the end of Harari’s Part Two, with the great empires of the ancient world firmly in place. Throughout the course, particular attention is given to separating well-established evidence from interpretation and informed speculation.
Jesse Frey is a retired U.S. Army officer; long-time OLLI instructor.
Note: Daylight Savings Time ends on November 1, 2026. After that date this class will begin at 11 am ET.
*This registration item is ZOOM-only; there is not an in-person component to this course. It is offered and run by The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Arizona.*