《西方将主宰多久》内容简介

　　为什么中国没有出现“文艺复兴”？

　　为什么工业革命发生在英国？

　　为什么现代科学先在西方世界兴起？

　　为什么抵达美洲的是哥伦布，而不是郑和？

　　为什么中国拥有辉煌历史，

　　却在近代陷入停滞，而西方一举超前？

　　这些问题归结为一点就是：

　　西方缘何主宰当今世界？东方为何沉寂多年？

　　本书作者伊恩·莫里斯立足长达五万年的东西方人类发展史，指出西方的主宰地位既非自古以来便注定，也非短期的偶然事件。这两种观点都无法解释为何在落后的情况下，近现代的西方反而迎头追赶甚至超越了东方。莫里斯认为，地理因素才是其中关键。是地理因素使东西方社会走出了截然不同的发展轨迹，而社会发展也反过来改变了地理的意义。这种双向的作用力缔造了从古至今的世界格局，令东西方此盛彼衰的历史形态日趋成形。

　　作者将各个学科的最新发现联系起来，并结合其原创的“社会发展指数”衡量标准，以数值的形式直观呈现了不同时空的东西方社会的发展面貌，揭示了财富和力量如何从东方转移到西方，并就此奠定西方几百年来的统治地位。

　　同时，本书并未止步于此。通过对战争、气候变化、能源演变等一系列细节的梳理，作者不仅追溯了西方得以主宰世界的历史根源，也大胆预测了未来百年内，世界将会产生怎样的剧变。

　　作者简介

　　[美]伊恩·莫里斯

　　全球知名历史学家、考古学家，美国斯坦福大学古典学教授，英国国家学术院院士，伦敦政治经济学院IDEAS智库高级研究员。曾任斯坦福大学古典学系系主任、考古中心负责人、人文与科学学院高级副院长。

　　他的学术生涯始于研究希腊城邦的崛起，随后转向古代经济学，目前主要研究冰期以来的全球历史。曾在英国、希腊和意大利进行考古挖掘工作，并主持斯坦福大学在意大利蒙特帕里卓的考古挖掘。

　　已出版《西方将主宰多久》《文明的度量》《战争》《历史的偏见》《地理即命运》《希腊人》等14部著作，其中《西方将主宰多久》已被翻译成13种文字，并入选《经济学人》2010年度图书、《纽约时报》2011年度杰出图书，入围2011年英国奥威尔图书奖。

How long will the West Dominate

Why hasn't China had a Renaissance?

Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Britain?

Why did modern science first arise in the Western world?

Why did Columbus arrive in America instead of Zheng He?

Why China has such a glorious history,

But stagnated in modern times while the West got ahead of itself?

These questions boil down to one thing:

Why does the West dominate today's world? Why has the East been silent for so many years?

Based on 50,000 years of human history between East and West, Ian Morris argues that the dominance of the West was neither preordained from ancient times nor a short-term accident. Neither view can explain why the modern West, while lagging behind, has caught up with and even surpassed the East. According to Morris, geography is the key. It is the geographical factor that makes the Eastern and Western societies out of the completely different development tracks, and the social development in turn changes the meaning of geography. This two-way force has created the world pattern from ancient times to the present, and has increasingly shaped the historical pattern of prosperity and decline between the East and the West.

By connecting the latest findings from various disciplines and combining them with his original "Social Development Index" measure, the author visually visualises the development of Eastern and Western societies in different time and space, revealing how wealth and power shifted from East to West, and thus established the dominance of the West for centuries.

At the same time, the book does not stop there. Through a series of details such as war, climate change, energy evolution and so on, the author not only traces the historical roots of the West's domination of the world, but also boldly predicts how the world will be radically changed in the next 100 years.

About the author

Ian Morris

He is a world-renowned historian and archaeologist, professor of Classics at Stanford University, Academician of the British National Academy, and senior fellow at the IDEAS think tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was chairman of the Classics Department, director of the Center for Archaeology, and senior associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University.

He began his academic career studying the rise of the Greek city-states before turning to ancient economics and currently focuses on global history since the Ice Age. He has conducted archaeological excavations in the United Kingdom, Greece, and Italy, and directed the Stanford University excavation in Monteparietro, Italy.

He has published 14 books including "How Long Will the West Dominate", "The Measure of Civilization", "War", "The Bias of History", "Geography is Destiny" and "The Greeks", among which "How Long Will the West Dominate" has been translated into 13 languages and selected as the Economist's 2010 Book of the Year and the New York Times's 2011 Outstanding Book of the Year. Shortlisted for the Orwell Book Prize 2011.