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avesmaria 's review for:
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
by Charles C. Mann
1493 is an engaging, detailed, globally wandering dive into the Columbian Exchange, the trade of goods, people, diseases, and culture that causes what Mann dubs the "Homogocene" (an ecological era where plants, animals, and humans slowly become more uniform and monocultural). It is a sequel and companion to Charles Mann's earlier (and also fascinating) book, 1491, which is about culture and civilization in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Like 1491, Mann balances in-depth information and lots of data with engaging details and good storytelling. He imbues Legazpi's 1565 arrival in the Philippines, cities of runaway African slaves in the Amazon, and the Chinese silk and silver trade with the excitement and importance these events deserve in shaping the globalized world we know today. It's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the exhaustive content and big ideas that these two books have covered - my brain has gone on a trek around the world and stuffed full of facts the whole way - but I know I'll be returning to both in the future. The only thing I didn't like about 1493 was its lack of conclusion or thoughts about what we will now reap from the globalized world we've been sowing since 1492. Every American or "white" person, or anyone who's grown up with a Eurocentric view of history, owes it to themselves to read both 1491 and 1493 and discover the fascinating stories about who really shaped the world we live in!