Charles C. Mann
(Author)
Hardcover: 560 pages
Publisher: Knopf (August 9, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307265722
ISBN-13: 978-0307265722
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
Description
From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the
pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of 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 radically different suites of
plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he
ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing
trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European
vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.
The Columbian
Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy,
oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand.
More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for
the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and
African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of
them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like
before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet.
Eight decades after
Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed.
The
New York Times Book Review
“Voltaire would have
loved Charles C. Mann’s outstanding new book, 1493.
In more than 500 lively pages, it not only explains the chain of events that
produced those candied fruits, nuts and gardens, but also weaves their stories
together into a convincing explanation of why our world is the way it is . . .
Mann has managed the difficult trick of telling a complicated story in engaging
and clear prose while refusing to reduce its ambiguities to slogans. He is not
a professional historian, but most professionals could learn a lot from the
deft way he does this . . . Most impressive of all, he manages to turn plants,
germs, insects and excrement into the lead actors in his drama while still
parading before us an unforgettable cast of human characters. He makes even the
most unpromising-sounding subjects fascinating. I, for one, will never look at
a piece of rubber in quite the same way now . . . The Columbian Exchange has
shaped everything about the modern world. It brought us the plants we tend in
our gardens and the pests that eat them. And as it accelerates in the 21st century,
it may take both away again. If you want to understand why, read 1493.”
PRAISES
“Even the wisest
readers will find many surprises here . . . Like
1491, Mann’s sequel will change worldviews.” -Bruce Watson, San Francisco Chronicle
“In the wake of his
groundbreaking book 1491 Charles Mann
has once again produced a brilliant and riveting work that will forever change
the way we see the world. Mann shows how the ecological collision of Europe and
the Americas transformed virtually every aspect of human history. Beautifully
written, and packed with startling research, 1493
is a monumental achievement."
-David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
“In 1491 Charles Mann brilliantly described the
Americas on the eve of Columbus’s voyage. Now in 1493
he tells how the world was changed forever by the movement of foods, metals,
plants, people and diseases between the ‘New World’ and both Europe and China.
His book is readable and well-written, based on his usual broad research,
travels and interviews. A fascinating and important topic, admirably told.”
-John Hemming, author of Tree of Rivers
REVIEW
Worms and parasites,
slaves and masters, greed and commerce, tobacco and guano - all have radically
shaped today's world, and continue to do so. The Columbian Exchange united,
both for better and for worse, this earth in ways that Columbus could never have
dreamed.
The author's writing
is well organized, researched, illustrated, and annotated. Given that, it still
could have been boring but it wasn't. Charles Mann kept me entertained and
interested through every word, remarkable considering how much information he was
able to impart in the roughly 400 pages of text. I knew bits and pieces of this
story, but never the bigger picture as he was able to show me. He did this
without becoming pedantic, condescending, or proselytizing. I highly recommend
this book to anyone at all interested in the history and future of this planet.
0 comments:
Post a Comment