1493 by Charles C. Mann

Started: Feb. 23
Stalled: Feb 25
Restarted: April 28, 2012
Finished: May 13, 2012
Pages: 459

Charles Mann's previous book, 1491, uses recent archeological and historical research to draw a picture of the Americas before Columbus's arrival.  1493 describes the impact of on the entire world of sustained European involvement in the Americas post-"discovery".

Both books are full of surprising facts.  Perhaps the single most unbelievable item from 1493 is that earthworms are not native to North America.  I looked at the footnote on that one, and am tempted to actually look up those references myself!  (The assertion in the book is that farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area brought earthworms with them both in ship ballast and in the root balls of plants that they transported to their new home.  Okay, it's a plausible scenario for introduction....but weren't there any American earthworms in that ecological niche before contact?  And how do you know? For that matter, how do you know that the "European" earthworms weren't already here when the British settlers arrived?),  I could list a lot more random facts, but I'd hate to spoil too many of these nuggets for anyone who might like to go on to read 1493.  Rest assured there are lots more.

Mann uses these surprising facts along with a lot of historical detail to build the central theses of  his book: the Spanish conquest of the Americas fundamentally changed the world.  It was the start of an inexorable process that led to the world becoming effectively a single economy, and increasingly a single ecosystem.   Furthermore, this change was a direct, real, and traceable result of various decisions made by first the Spanish conquistadoras and later by (mostly) the subsequent Spanish colonial administrations. As with 1491, Mann's arguments are convincing both because of the amount of detail he includes, and because of the way he links his stories together to draw the bigger picture.

So, overall, I'd recommend reading it.  Although... if I had to choose between reading 1491 and 1493, I'd read 1491.  I enjoyed it more.  It could be because I read 1491 while I was in Mexico and actually visiting some of the same specific places that he discusses in the book.  It could also be that reading both books so close together was a bit much.  He does have some annoying tendencies (like oversimplification of philosophical or political issues), which are easier to overlook in a one off.  But it might also be that 1491 is the better book.