The Great Divide, Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New

摘要

The discovery of America was important intellectually to the Europeans because the new lands and peoples challenged traditional ideas about geography, history, theology, even about the nature of man (p. 525). This longish treatise on how humanity's socio-cultural and economic development emerged is, probably unwittingly on Peter Watson's part, a detailed sketch of retro strategy as an interpretation of forward movement. Historian Watson traces the findings of archeology and paleontology through the different worlds of Eurasia and the Americas from humankind's earliest moments until roughly the present era. He separates this persuasive thesis, rich in detail, in three functional parts: 1. the difference between early Americans and the world's other peoples; 2. how nature in the Old World differs from that in the New World; and 3. how human nature itself evolved differently in these two half-worlds.