Peter Watson
Exploring the development of humankindbetween the Old World and the Newâ€”from15,000 BC to AD 1500â€”the acclaimed authorof ,Ideas, and ,The German Genius, offers agroundbreaking new understandingof human history.,Why did Asia and Europe develop far earlier than the Americas? What were thefactors that acceleratedâ€”or impededâ€”development? How did the experiences of OldWorld inhabitants differ from their New Worldcounterpartsâ€”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 world warmed up and the last Ice Age came to an end,the Bering Strait refilled with water, dividing America from Eurasia. This divisionâ€”with two great populations on Earth, each unaware of theaterâ€”continued until Christopher Columbus voyaged to the New World in the fifteenth century.,The Great Divide, compares the development of human kind in the Old World and the New between 15,000 BC and AD 1500. Watson identifies three major differences between the two worldsâ€”climate, domesticable mammals, and hallucinogenic plantsâ€”that combined to produce very different trajectories of civilization in the two hemispheres. Combining the most up-to-date knowledge in archaeology, anthropology, geology, meteorology, cosmology, and mythology, this unprecedented, masterful study offers uniquely revealing insight into what it means to be human.
History,Nonfiction,Anthropology,Science,History,World History,History,Archaeology,Environment,Nature,Literature,American,Cultural,Science,Natural History
The Great Divide: History and Human Nature in the Old World and the New