Book: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Author: Charles C. Mann
Reviewer: David Hiscoe, Director, Communication Strategy, NCSU Libraries

Italy without tomatoes, Ireland without potatoes, America with millions of non-Europeans in cities larger than Paris, China collapsing because it can’t find silver for coins. That’s our world until 1492 when Asia, Europe, and America collided, changing everything, everywhere, for everybody. If you learned history from someone who didn’t know ecology or microbiology or didn’t tell you ten of thousands held in slavery freed themselves before Lincoln, this book will change who you think you are.