Author: Charles C. Mann
Title: 1493 : Uncovering the new world Columbus created
Narrator: Robertson Dean
Publication Info: Random House Audio (2011)
Previously Read by Same Author: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Summary/Review:
A sequel of sorts to 1491, this book investigates the wide-ranging impact of contact between Eurasia & Africa and the Americas and exchange of people, animals, plants, and micorganisms that followed in the wake of Christopher Columbus’ voyages. This is called the Columbian Exchange and is the root of today’s globalism. Mann investigates a wide variety of topics, places, and times right up to the present day that resulted from this exchange. It’s a fascinating overview of social and economical forces at work through history.
Recommended books:
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook , and Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 