The Dispute of the New World

The History of a Polemic, 1750–1900

Antonello Gerbi

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Year: 2010
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780822973829
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Translated by Jeremy Moyle

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 into English 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.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Translator's Preface
• Preface
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. Buffon and the Inferiority of the Animals Species in America
• Chapter 2. Some Figures of the Enlightenment
• Chapter 3. De Pauw and the Inferiority of the Men of America
• Chapter 4. European Reactions to de Pauw
• Chapter 5. The Second Phase of the Dispute
• Chapter 6. The Reaction to de Pauw in Spanish America
• Chapter 7. Hegel and His Contemporaries
• Chapter 8. The Dispute's Trivialization and Obstinate Vitality
• Chapter 9. Supplements and Digressions
• Bibliography of Works Cited
• Suggestions for Further Research
• Index