The Economists 2010年度推荐,FT中文网年度荐书,2011年奥威尔写作奖提名
伊恩·莫里斯是斯坦福大学的历史学和古典文学教授。目前,他已出版十部学术性著作,包括最近的《远古帝国的兴衰》。同时,他还指导了希腊和意大利的考古挖掘。他现在居住在加利福尼亚州的圣克鲁斯山。
发表于2025-04-10
Why the West Rules--For Now 2025 pdf epub mobi 电子书
地理,社会,和生物学法则的相互作用: 生物学告诉我们,人类为什么要推动社会发展;社会学告诉我们,人类是如何做到(或者做不到)推动社会发展的(莫里斯定理:导致变化的原因是懒惰,贪婪,恐惧的人们寻求更为简便易行,获利丰厚,安全可靠的做事方法。他们对自己正在做的事...
评分地理,社会,和生物学法则的相互作用: 生物学告诉我们,人类为什么要推动社会发展;社会学告诉我们,人类是如何做到(或者做不到)推动社会发展的(莫里斯定理:导致变化的原因是懒惰,贪婪,恐惧的人们寻求更为简便易行,获利丰厚,安全可靠的做事方法。他们对自己正在做的事...
评分 评分《西方将主宰多久(Why the West rule-for now)》读后感 这是本很有趣的书,尽管其学术思想并不怎么专业,但在历史比较领域,也算是一枝奇葩。我从3月25日开始读这本书,到3月30日完成全书的3/4,中间因为陪大哥游玩及随之而来的清明假期而基本没有看,到今天一口气看完了,也...
评分图书标签: 历史 中西文化 社会学 政治 英文原版 文化 比较政治 history
Why does the West rule? In this magnum opus, eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing on 50,000 years of history, archeology, and the methods of social science, to make sense of when, how, and why the paths of development differed in the East and West — and what this portends for the 21st century.
There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules. Proponents of "Long-Term Lock-In" theories such as Jared Diamond suggest that from time immemorial, some critical factor— geography, climate, or culture perhaps — made East and West unalterably different, and determined that the industrial revolution would happen in the West and push it further ahead of the East. But the East led the West between 500 and 1600, so this development can't have been inevitable; and so proponents of "Short-Term Accident" theories argue that Western rule was a temporary aberration that is now coming to an end, with Japan, China, and India resuming their rightful places on the world stage. However, as the West led for 9,000 of the previous 10,000 years, it wasn't just a temporary aberration. So, if we want to know why the West rules, we need a whole new theory. Ian Morris, boldly entering the turf of Jared Diamond and Niall Ferguson, provides the broader approach that is necessary, combining the textual historian's focus on context, the anthropological archaeologist's awareness of the deep past, and the social scientist's comparative methods to make sense of the past, present, and future— in a way no one has ever done before.
有细菌枪炮与钢铁珠玉在前,此书地位难免要低一点,但是仍然值得好好读。写得太长,陆陆续续用了我好几个月时间才看完,减一个星。
评分历史学家想用数据说话,他自己的指数(energy, organization, information, war)的heuristic 本身就有问题,而且测量标准不一,也都瞎估计,自己还承认有10%不超过20%的误差。唯一赞同的一句话是"..societies' abilities to get things done.. is the point of life"
评分读到的第一部parallel比较东西方文明进程的著作,清晰直观。虽然作者最后得出的由biology,soical, climate,geography共同决定文明走向结论略显平常,但他在文中分析东西方文明几次兴衰的成因以及它们如何突破特定ceiling score的方式非常有信服力(尤其是放在整个世界观背景下比较讨论)。比如15-16世纪欧亚大陆游牧民族的式微以及steppe走廊的关闭使得东西方文明稳定性大幅提高,地理因素决定了跨大西洋经济带的形成以及工业化时代必然于西方兴起,这些观点都比较新颖。有机会一定要再读读本书的中文版,深化影响。
评分穿越上万年的历史来总结人类的发展规律
评分Morris基本上是将地理决定论和生物学/社会学串在一起,提供了Needham问题一个大历史跨度的解释。很难说有太大振聋发聩的新思路,但数据和史料运用扎实、行文流畅优雅,确实是学界backbone类型的中坚力量。
Why the West Rules--For Now 2025 pdf epub mobi 电子书