- Published: 15/09/2011
- ISBN: 9781847084408
- Granta Books
- 720 pages
1493
Charles C. Mann
Two hundred million years ago the earth consisted of a single vast continent, Pangea, surrounded by a great planetary sea. Continental drift tore apart Pangaea, and for millennia the hemispheres were separate, evolving almost entirely different suites of plants and animals. Columbus’s arrival in the Americas brought together these long-separate worlds. Many historians believe that this collision of ecosystems and cultures – the Columbian Exchange – was the most consequential event in human history since the Neolithic Revolution. And it was the most consequential event in biological history since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Beginning with the world of microbes and moving up the species ladder to mankind, Mann rivetingly describes the profound effect this exchanging of species had on the culture of both continents.
£12.99
Almost mind-boggling in its scope, enthusiasm and erudition [it] is a history of globalisation before the term had been invented ... Ranging freely across time and space, Mann's book is full of compelling stories ... A tremendously provocative, learned and surprising read
Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
Journalist Charles Mann chronicles how Christopher Columbus' second New World expedition in 1493 triggered a global upheaval ... Drawing on new research, Mann reframes the past 500 years to riveting effect
Nature
Erudite and eye-opening history reveals how Europe's discovery of the Americas revolutionised life on earth
Sunday Times
From the Same Author
1491
Charles C. Mann
Up until very recently it was believed that in 1491, the year before Columbus landed, the Americas, one-third of the earth’s surface, were a near-pristine wilderness inhabited by small roaming bands of indigenous people. But recently unexpected discoveries have dramatically changed our understanding of Indian life. Many scholars now argue that the Indians were much more numerous, were in the Americas for far longer and had far more ecological impact on the land than previously believed. This knowledge has enormous implications for today’s environmental disputes, yet little has filtered into textbooks and even less into public awareness. Mann brings together all of the latest research, and the results of his own travels throughout North and South America, to provide a new, fascinating and iconoclastic account of the Americas before Columbus.
