21 Lessons for the 21st Century
{{Short description|2018 book by Yuval Noah Harari}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox book
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| name = 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
| image = 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.jpg
| image_size = 200px
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| author = Yuval Noah Harari
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| orig_lang_code = en
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| country = Israel
| language = English
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| subject = Social philosophy
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| publisher = Spiegel & Grau
| publisher2 = Jonathan Cape
| pub_date = 2018
| english_pub_date = 30 August 2018
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| pages = 372
| awards =
| isbn = 978-198-480-149-4
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| oclc = 1029771757
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| preceded_by = Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a book written by Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari and published in August 2018 by Spiegel & GrauHarari, Yuval Noah; Spiegel & Grau (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. {{ISBN|978-0-52551217-2}}. in the US and by Jonathan CapeHarari, Yuval Noah; Jonathan Cape (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. {{ISBN|978-1-78733067-2}}. in the UK. It is dedicated to the author's husband, Itzik.
The book consists of five parts, each containing four or five essays. The book focuses on present-day issues and societal questions.{{cite news |last1= Lewis|first1= Helen |title= 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari review – a guru for our times?|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/15/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-by-yuval-noah-harari-review |access-date= 17 October 2018 |work= The Guardian |date=15 August 2018}}
Critical response
The book had articles and reviews published by The New York Times, The Economist,{{Cite news |url= https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/08/30/big-data-is-reshaping-humanity-says-yuval-noah-harari|title=Big data is reshaping humanity, says Yuval Noah Harari|date=30 August 2018|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=17 October 2018}} Financial Times, The Guardian, New Statesman, and The Times.
In The New York Times, Bill Gates calls the book "fascinating" and his author "such a stimulating writer that even when I disagreed, I wanted to keep reading and thinking." For Gates, Harari "has teed up a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the 21st century."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/books/review/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-yuval-noah-harari.html|title=What Are the Biggest Problems Facing Us in the 21st Century?|last=Gates|first=Bill|date=4 September 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=17 October 2018}}
John Thornhill in Financial Times said that "[although] 21 Lessons is lit up by flashes of intellectual adventure and literary verve, it is probably the least illuminating of the three books" written by Harari, and that many of the observations in it feel recycled from the two others.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/6525c282-9aec-11e8-9702-5946bae86e6d|title=Are humans too flawed to survive the 21st century?|last=Thornhill|first=John|date=10 August 2018|work=Financial Times|access-date=17 October 2018}} Helen Lewis review in The Guardian is not as glowing but admires "the ambition and breadth of his work, smashing together unexpected ideas into dazzling observations."
The book has also received negative reviews. Gavin Jacobson in the New Statesman sees it as "a study thick with promise and thin in import" with advice "either too vague or too hollow to provide any meaningful guidance."{{Cite news |url= https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/yuval-noah-harari-s-21-lessons-21st-century-banal-and-risible-self-help-book|title=Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a banal and risible self-help book|last=Jacobson|first=Gavin|date=22 August 2018|work=The New Statesman |access-date= 17 October 2018}} In The Times, Gerard DeGroot writes: "The author of Sapiens is good at identifying the crises to come but his syrupy platitudes are no answer."{{Cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.com/article/review-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-by-yuval-noah-harari-nuclear-war-lets-meditate-instead-k8lbxg7t5|title=Review: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari — nuclear war? Let's meditate instead |last= DeGroot|first=Gerard|date= 11 August 2018|work=The Times|access-date=17 October 2018}}
Russian translation
A Russian translation of Harari's book was published in June 2019. However, the Russian media noticed that several passages about Russia and its President Putin were excluded from the translation. In particular, the chapter about post-truth begins in the Russian edition by referring to Donald Trump's speeches instead of Putin's false statements during the Russian annexation of Crimea.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5556028,00.html|title=Russia edition of book by famed Israeli author skips Putin criticism but slams Trump|last=Plotkin|first=Yuval|date=23 July 2019|work=Ynet|access-date=23 July 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://theins.ru/antifake/167351|title=В российском переводе книги о постправде поменяли Путина на Трампа, а оккупацию Крыма — на присоединение|last=Цой|first=Ива|date=22 July 2019|work=The Insider (Russia)|access-date=22 July 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2019/07/22/807036-harari|title=Историк Харари объяснил изменение фрагмента про Крым в российском переводе его книги|date=22 July 2019|work=Ведомости (Russia)|access-date=22 July 2019}} The representatives of Harari admitted that this change was authorized.{{Cite news|url=http://newsru.co.il/world/22jul2019/harari_501.html|title=Изменения в российском издании книги Юваля Харари. Комментарии автора|date=22 July 2019|work=NEWSru (Israel)|access-date=22 July 2019}}
Leonid Bershidsky in Moscow Times called it "caution — or, to call it by its proper name, cowardice",{{Cite news|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/07/24/putin-gets-stronger-when-creators-censor-themselves-a66545|title=Putin Gets Stronger When Creators Censor Themselves|last=Bershidsky|first=Leonid|date=24 July 2019|work=Moscow Times|access-date=28 July 2019}} and Nettanel Slyomovics in Haaretz claimed that Harari "is sacrificing those same liberal ideas that he presumes to represent".{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-yuval-noah-harari-s-problem-is-much-more-serious-than-self-censorship-1.7571242|title=Yuval Noah Harari's Problem Is Much More Serious Than Self-censorship|last=Slyomovics|first=Nettanel|date=24 July 2019|work=Haaretz|access-date=28 July 2019}} In a response, Harari stated that he "was warned that due to these few examples Russian censorship will not allow distribution of a Russian translation of the book" and that he "therefore faced a dilemma", namely to "replace these few examples with other examples, and publish the book in Russia," or "change nothing, and publish nothing", and that he "preferred publishing, because Russia is a leading global power and it seemed important that the book's ideas should reach readers in Russia, especially as the book is still very critical of the Putin regime – just without naming names."{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/yuval-noah-harari-responds-to-backlash-after-he-let-russia-censor-his-book-1.7576761|title=Prof. Yuval Noah Harari Responds to Censoring Russian Translation of His Book|newspaper=Haaretz}}
See also
{{Wikiquote|Yuval Noah Harari|21 Lessons for the 21st Century}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Yuval Noah Harari}}
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Category:2018 non-fiction books
Category:Books about human intelligence
Category:Books about historiography
Category:History books about civilization