The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New - Hardcover

Watson, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061672459 ISBN 13: 9780061672453

Verlag: Harper Collins, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Shelf wear to dust jacket, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor:

Comparing and contrasting the development of humankind in the “Old World” and the “New” between 15,000 B.C. and 1500 A.D., a cultural historian ponders a vast array of questions central to the human story, providing uniquely revealing insight into what it means to be human. 20,000 first printing.

Contraportada:

Exploring the development of humankindbetween the Old World and the New—from15,000 BC to AD 1500—the acclaimed authorof Ideas and The German Genius offers agroundbreaking new understandingof human history.

Why did Asia and Europe develop far earlierthan the Americas? What were thefactors that accelerated—or impeded—development? How did the experiences of OldWorld inhabitants differ from their New Worldcounterparts—and what factors influenced thosedifferences?

In this fascinating and erudite history, PeterWatson ponders these questions central to thehuman story. By 15,000 BC, humans had migratedfrom northeastern Asia across the frozen Beringland bridge to the Americas. When the worldwarmed up and the last Ice Age came to an end,the Bering Strait refilled with water, dividingAmerica from Eurasia. This division—with twogreat populations on Earth, each unaware of theother—continued until Christopher Columbusvoyaged to the New World in the fifteenth century.

The Great Divide compares the developmentof humankind in the Old World and the Newbetween 15,000 BC and AD 1500. Watson identifiesthree major differences between the twoworlds—climate, domesticable mammals, andhallucinogenic plants—that combined to producevery different trajectories of civilization in thetwo hemispheres. Combining the most up-to-dateknowledge in archaeology, anthropology, geology,meteorology, cosmology, and mythology, thisunprecedented, masterful study offers uniquelyrevealing insight into what it means to be human.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Harper Collins
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0061672459
• ISBN 13: 9780061672453
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 610