1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Charles Mann's 1493 is another excellent historical analysis of the Americas — this time of the period after Columbus's arrival, when the world became truly global (“homogenocene” in Mann’s term). Mann traces the impact of this historical shift on human populations (between 67% and 90% of people in the Americas would die from viruses and disease), immigration patterns, the slave trade (African slaves’ partial resistance to malaria and yellow fever were crucial factors in its growth), and subsequently the Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Revolution.