The dispute of the New World : the history of a polemic, 1750-1900

Bibliographic Information

The dispute of the New World : the history of a polemic, 1750-1900

by Antonello Gerbi ; translated by Jeremy Moyle

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010, c1973

1st pbk. ed

Other Title

La disputa del Nuovo Mondo : Storia di una polemica, 1750-1900

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Note

Originally published in Italian as La disputa del Nuovo Mondo : Storia di una polemica, 1750-1900 by R. Ricciardi, Milano-Napoli, 1955

Reprint of: rev. and enlarged ed. 1973

Bibliography: p. 631-669

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

When Hegel described the Americas as an inferior continent, he was repeating a contention that inspired one of the most passionate debates of modern times. Originally formulated by the eminent natural scientist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and expanded by the Prussian encyclopedist Cornelius de Pauw, this provocative thesis drew heated responses from politicians, philosophers, publicists, and patriots on both sides of the Atlantic. The ensuing polemic reached its apex in the latter decades of the eighteenth century and is far from extinct today. Translated in 1973, The Dispute of the New World is the definitive study of this debate. Antonello Gerbi scrutinizes each contribution to the debate, unravels the complex arguments, and reveals their inner motivations. As the story of the polemic unfolds, moving through many disciplines that include biology, economics, anthropology, theology, geophysics, and poetry, it becomes clear that the subject at issue is nothing less than the totality of the Old World versus the New, and how each viewed the other at a vital turning point in history.

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