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A review by socraticgadfly
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann
5.0
I've read other books about the Columbian Exchange, so I knew a fair amount of stuff on the footstuffs/crops issue, at least between the New World and Europe. Even here, though, Mann provided new information, and definitely new "framing" at times. And, he definitely provided new information on how the Exchange influenced Asia.
On the "human" exchange? A lot of insight here, as to the whys of slavery going no further north than it did, the different ways different American Indian societies understood slavery, the way sub-Saharan Africa understood it and more, and how all these sociological issues, combined with disease vectors, came together in the New World. The part about Mexico City as the first "world city" was definitely interesting all by itself.
Finally, Mann's properly nuanced small bits of Malthusianism, how the Exchange's intensification through monoculture agriculture could backfire, was a worthy aside.
On the "human" exchange? A lot of insight here, as to the whys of slavery going no further north than it did, the different ways different American Indian societies understood slavery, the way sub-Saharan Africa understood it and more, and how all these sociological issues, combined with disease vectors, came together in the New World. The part about Mexico City as the first "world city" was definitely interesting all by itself.
Finally, Mann's properly nuanced small bits of Malthusianism, how the Exchange's intensification through monoculture agriculture could backfire, was a worthy aside.