The character arc of Yuval Noah Harari
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 24 February 1976 in Kiryat Ata, Israel. Between then and now sit history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1993, an Oxford doctorate in 2002, a fellowship to 2005, the Polonsky Prize in 2009 and 2012, Sapiens in Hebrew in 2011 and English in 2014, Homo Deus in 2016, 21 Lessons in 2018 and Nexus in 2024. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Yuval Noah Harari?
He was a specialist until he was not.
He read medieval and military history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1993 to 1998 and took his doctorate at Oxford in 2002, on the same narrow subject. He held a Yad Hanadiv fellowship from 2003 to 2005 and won the Polonsky Prize in 2009 and again in 2012, and the Moncado Award from the Society for Military History in 2011. He was, by then, a well regarded specialist in a small field.
Then he wrote something with no business succeeding. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind came out in Hebrew in 2011 and in English in 2014, and attempted the entire history of the species in one volume. Academic historians are trained out of writing books like that, which is roughly why so few of them exist and why this one travelled.
Homo Deus followed in 2016, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century in 2018 and Nexus, on information networks from the stone age to artificial intelligence, in 2024. There are graphic versions from 2020 and a children's series from 2022. He was elected to the Young Israeli Academy of Sciences in 2012, is associated with Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and in 2018 gave a TED talk as a digital avatar, which is the sort of thing a historian of the future would do.
The moments
Yuval Noah Harari's timeline.
The 1990s
History in Jerusalem
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Medieval and military history, which is about as narrow as a subject gets.
The 2000s
An Oxford doctorate
Milestone, and it changed everything. A doctorate in the same narrow subject, finished at twenty six.
A research fellowship
Milestone. Two years paid to read, before the teaching began.
The Polonsky Prize
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Three prizes in the specialism, before anybody outside it knew the name.
Stay narrow, or write the lot
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: write the whole species, taken, or stay in the specialism. Sapiens reached readers in over sixty languages and three further books followed it.
The 2010s
Sapiens, in Hebrew
Milestone, and it changed everything. The whole history of the species, attempted in one volume, in one small language.
The Young Academy
Milestone. Elected by his own field, in the year before the book went out in English.
Sapiens, in English
Milestone, and it changed everything. Three years later, in English, and then in a hundred other languages.
Homo Deus
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The same method turned forwards instead of back.
Twenty one lessons
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A book about now, and a talk given by a version of him that was not in the room.
The 2020s
Nexus
Milestone, and it changed everything. Information itself as the subject, which is the argument the last decade was building to.
The Tanner Lecture
Milestone. Back at Oxford, twenty four years after the doctorate, giving the lecture.
He writes on, and the questions keep getting less comfortable. What it has set moving is an enormous number of people reading history for the first time since school, which is a strange and good thing for a medieval military historian to have done.
What he wrote
Books by Yuval Noah Harari
- 2011
Sapiens
A brief history of humankind. Published in Hebrew in 2011 and in English in 2014, and the book that changed everything for him.
- 2016
Homo Deus
A brief history of tomorrow. The same method turned forwards instead of back.
- 2018
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
A book about now, rather than about the past or the future.
- 2024
Nexus
A brief history of information networks from the stone age to artificial intelligence.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His went from a narrow specialism to the widest subject there is. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Yuval Noah Harari: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
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Where does this timeline of Yuval Noah Harari's life come from?
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Sources
- Yuval Noah Harari, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem, department of history.
- Publisher records for Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Nexus.