A solid follow-up to the outstanding 1491
In his 2005 book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann challenged traditional notions of pre-Columbian America, demonstrating that the civilizations that existed in America prior to European contact were far more populous and sophisticated than commonly thought. In his latest book, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, published in 2011, Mann turns his attention to the worldwide and centuries-spanning effects of the initial contact between the Old and New Worlds, and the monumental biological, cultural, economic, and political changes that followed the dawn of globalization.
The book opens with a brief biography of Columbus and the story of his famous voyage. Next, Mann gives an account of the settlement of Jamestown. Packed with lots of myth-busting factoids and anecdotes, these retellings of history seem far removed from the textbook versions we grew up with. When the Spanish begin trading with the Chinese in the Philippines, globalization has begun. American crops become overnight sensations on the world’s dinner tables: potatoes feed a starving Europe, sweet potatoes perform much the same function in China, and tobacco hooks everybody. Mann is very good at establishing chains of cause-and-effect relationships between the voyage of 1492 and later historical events. He postulates how malaria encouraged the slave trade and helped win the American Revolution, Mexican silver contributed to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Irish potato famine spawned the agro-industrial complex, and rubber made possible the Industrial Revolution. In the book’s latter half, Mann delves into the diverse racial makeup of the early post-conquest Americas, as embodied by the first truly global metropolis, Mexico City. He goes on to emphasize that, for centuries after the establishment of the slave trade, Africans constituted the majority of the American population. He details how many slaves departed into the wilderness, mixed with the indigenous inhabitants, and established their own communities, some of which still exist today.
While 1491 was an absolute joy to read from cover to cover, at times reading 1493 feels like work. Part of this is due simply to the subject matter. The ancient civilizations discussed in 1491 are inherently awe-inspiring, while the subject matter of 1493 is obviously more depressing—malaria, potato famine, slavery. Though Mann does briefly mention some of the positive effects of globalization, much of the book is a catalog of pestilence, cruelty, and misery. In addition, the theses presented here are not as novel or as shocking as those of 1491. Most readers will already have an inkling of the main ideas of the book, though Mann, skilled journalist that he is, fleshes out the familiar theories with plenty of facts and figures that are sure to surprise even the most historically savvy reader. Mann’s wide breadth of knowledge and minute attention to detail can be both a blessing and a curse. Some chapters feel like a disorienting morass of detail, devoid of focus, leaving the reader wondering what point is really being made.
Mann is an excellent writer, and perhaps such objections arise simply because 1491 set the bar too high. Despite its flaws and dull moments, it’s hard to imagine a better synthesis of the present state of research on the Columbian Exchange. Those who are at all interested in this subject can’t help but read it, and, for the most part, they will find it quite fascinating and insightful.
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A masterpiece of science journalism
In his book 1491, Charles C. Mann challenges long-standing conceptions of the state of pre-Columbian societies in America at the time of European discovery. He asserts that the human population in America was much higher than the history books we all studied in school would lead us to believe. He also attacks the idea that the Indians lived in an idyllic state of complete harmony with nature, preserving the landscape as a perpetual, untouched wilderness. Citing recent scientific and historic evidence, as well as interviews with archaeologists and anthropologists, Mann proposes that much of what we know about Native American civilizations prior to European contact is based upon accounts of early explorers and colonists who witnessed an America already decimated by Old World diseases, which may have killed as many as 90% of the New World’s native inhabitants. Mann provides an excellent summary of recent research that suggests pre-Columbian inhabitants were far more numerous than previously thought. He also stresses that, in contrast to their reputation for having no impact on their environment, the American Indians did in fact manage the natural landscape to a tremendous extent. Their successes and failures in doing so can teach us valuable lessons about sustainable living.
Mann covers a great deal of real estate in this book, hopping from one end of the continent to the other to support his theses. He examines the Spanish conquests of the Inca and the Aztecs in order to emphasize the role that disease played in each conflict. He reaches back as far as the Pleistocene epoch to question the date at which humans first migrated into the Americas, and takes an in-depth look at the debate over the accuracy of the model that proposes the Clovis culture were the first inhabitants of the Americas. On the subject of Native Americans’ effect on the landscape, Mann investigates the fascinating history of maize, a plant bred by native Americans through a remarkable and mysterious feat of genetic manipulation. Other topics Mann covers in this panoramic work are possible reasons for the demise of the Maya, the idea that the Amazon rainforest may be a human-engineered orchard, and the influence of the Haudenosaunee’s egalitarian society on the American concept of liberty and equality.
As in any revisionist history, there is obviously some controversy regarding many of the topics covered in this book, but Mann is no crackpot seeking to capitalize on sensational conspiracy theories. Though he is apparently on the side of the “High Counters”—those who believe that the pre-Columbian American population has been greatly underestimated—his examination of the issues is very thoughtful and well-balanced. He always gives both sides of every debate their due, and if a theory is unproven, he tells you it’s unproven and why. Mann is neither a scientist nor historian, but he is a science journalist with an exceptional talent for presenting incredibly complex arguments to a general audience without insulting their intelligence. When discussing the dating of artifacts, for example, Mann not only tells you they’ve been carbon dated, he explains in three succinct paragraphs what carbon dating is and the brief history of its development, in a way that makes you realize you didn’t understand the process as well as you thought you did. The sheer amount of information he packs between the covers of this book is truly staggering, yet his writing is never boring, always engaging, and immensely thought-provoking.
1491, published in 2005, is easily my favorite nonfiction book of the past decade. Granted, I happen to have an avid interest in the subject matter, but any reader of the sort who subscribes to National Geographic or watches the History Channel will find this book absolutely fascinating.
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