Author Yuval Noah Harari's best-selling book, "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", is worthy of its superlative commendations (including Bill Gates). He astutely traces the historical lines of humankind known by physics 13.8 billion years ago, through the conditions presupposed to result in human evolution 2.5 million years ago (he does espouse the scientific "faith" of evolution), leading up to present day.