1493 : : Uncovering the new World Columbus Created

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"This is a Borzoi Book"--T.p. verso.
In the Homogenocene. Two monuments -- Atlantic Journeys. The tobacco coast ; Evil air -- Pacific Journeys. Shiploads of money (silk for silver, part one) -- Lovesick grass, foreign tubers, and jade rice (silk for silver, part two) -- Europe in the World. The agro-industrial complex ; Black gold -- Africa in the World. Crazy soup ; Forest of fugitives -- Currents of Life. In Bulalacao -- Fighting words -- Globalization in beta.
"From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning of an extraordinary exchange of flora and fauna between Eurasia and the Americas. As Charles Mann shows, this global ecological tumult--the "Columbian Exchange"--underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest generation of research by scientists, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Manila and Mexico City-- where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted--the center of the world. In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination"-- Provided by publisher.

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fascinating submitted by unknown on November 9, 2011, 7:19am This book is fascinating We have had globalization since the 1400's.
This author has done extensive research and compiled it to make a great read.

Massive But Readable History submitted by sdunav on June 19, 2012, 10:23pm This is a massive but not overly academic book (not jargon heavy at all!) that covers the birth of the modern world - the globalization that happened after the "discovery" of the New World - culturally, economically, and environmentally.

Mann's research is amazing. But the writing style - which makes complex ideas, even stuff I'm not at all interested in, like 16th c. Chinese economy and politics accessible - is what really blew me away.

In short, this was a perfect storm of ideas, research, and execution. This is the kind of thing that Michael Pollan did for food in "Omnivore's Dilemma", but for history, especially environmental history. If you have any interest at all in those topics, I can't recommend this highly enough. I learned an amazing amount about tobacco, rubber, guano, potatoes, mosquitoes, malaria, yellow fever, slavery, race and class in Latin America, Chinese pirates, silver, and Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Which all seems rather scattered, but Mann shows just how it's all connected and *very* relevant to our world today.