1493, by Charles C. Mann--a must read!

            I am just finishing Charles C. Mann’s 1493--Uncovering The New World Columbus Created.  It was my original intention to provide a detailed review, including a general outline.  But for reasons I will explain, I will give you only a strong recommendation that you read this work.  1493 is the second of a set.   Mann’s earlier work, 1491, explains what the Americas were like prior to Columbus.   One needs only to read a few pages of 1491 to realize that everything we have been taught in school, from grade school through college, about the Americas before Columbus was utterly wrong—absurdly wrong.   But 1491 is fairly straightforward.  It tells us who lived in America, how many of them lived there, and how they lived.  Such a book can be outlined and summarized.  The Cat’s review of this work is in the archives of this blog, and I will provide you a link to it.

            Mann’s recent work, 1493, explains how every continent was radically changed by what happened in 1492.  As soon as transatlantic voyages, and later transpacific voyages began, a steady transfer of plants, animals and people between continents also began, and along with them the transfer of the diseases that affect these plants, animals and people.  This transfer, which Mann calls the “Columbian Exchange,” was sometimes deliberate—sometimes inadvertent. But it had cataclysmic results.  The ecological, economic, political and demographic effects basically turned the world upside down. How it will all play out is still unknown, since this process, now 500 years running, is still far from over.  Mann argues that almost anything of any importance that has happened in the last 500 years anywhere in the world is in some way the direct consequence of the Columbian exchange.  His list of events includes the rise of Western Europe, the world population explosion, the industrial revolution, and a long series of food production revolutions, plus all the economic and political, and demographic results of these events.  In all human history, no event had ever happened that would produce such sweeping global change, and short of a nuclear holocaust, it’s not likely that anything will again.            Mann’s narrative is a vast tapestry, with all the ecological, economic, and political threads skillfully woven together to form a richly detailed picture of 500 years of global history.

But any attempt to adequately outline this work would be as lengthy as the book itself, so I can only recommend that you read it.

            And if you have not yet Read Charles C. Mann’s 1491, you might wish to read The Cat’s brief review.   It will only take a few minutes, and I think you’ll find it worth your while.