1493

Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

By: Charles C. Mann

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.

More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.

The Columbian Exchange, as researchers call it, is the reason there are tomatoes in Italy, oranges in Florida, chocolates in Switzerland, and chili peppers in Thailand. More important, creatures the colonists knew nothing about hitched along for the ride. Earthworms, mosquitoes, and cockroaches; honeybees, dandelions, and African grasses; bacteria, fungi, and viruses; rats of every description—all of them rushed like eager tourists into lands that had never seen their like before, changing lives and landscapes across the planet.

Eight decades after Columbus, a Spaniard named Legazpi succeeded where Columbus had failed. He sailed west to establish continual trade with China, then the richest, most powerful country in the world. In Manila, a city Legazpi founded, silver from the Americas, mined by African and Indian slaves, was sold to Asians in return for silk for Europeans. It was the first time that goods and people from every corner of the globe were connected in a single worldwide exchange. Much as Columbus created a new world biologically, Legazpi and the Spanish empire he served created a new world economically.

As Charles C. Mann shows, the Columbian Exchange underlies much of subsequent human history. Presenting the latest research by ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the creation of this worldwide network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City—where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted—the center of the world. In such encounters, he uncovers the germ of today’s fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars.

In 1493, Charles Mann gives us an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination.

©2011 Charles C. Mann (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Charles Mann expertly shows how the complex, interconnected ecological and economic consequences of the European discovery of the Americas shaped many unexpected aspects of the modern world. This is an example of the best kind of history book: one that changes the way you look at the world, even as it informs and entertains.” (Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in Six Glasses)

“In 1491 Charles Mann brilliantly described the Americas on the eve of Columbus’s voyage. Now in 1493 he tells how the world was changed forever by the movement of foods, metals, plants, people and diseases between the ‘New World’ and both Europe and China. His book is readable and well-written, based on his usual broad research, travels and interviews. A fascinating and important topic, admirably told.” (John Hemming, author of Tree of Rivers)

“In the wake of his groundbreaking book 1491 Charles Mann has once again produced a brilliant and riveting work that will forever change the way we see the world. Mann shows how the ecological collision of Europe and the Americas transformed virtually every aspect of human history. Beautifully written, and packed with startling research, 1493 is a monumental achievement." (David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z)

Absolute top-notch book and narration

Robertson Dean I think is really just the best narrator I've heard on Audible. His skill and voice, combined with Mann's electrifying accounts of histories across the world, makes for a potent combo. Listened to this one 2x in a row

A fine successor to 1491

Although the story wanders from the Americas into Southeast Asia during long diversions, this is an interesting, deep plunge into the results, consequences, and benefits of The Columbian Exchange.

Riveting history

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely and I already have recommended this book to a number of people.

What did you like best about this story?

The telling of the consequences of the Columbian Exchange, how the Americas and the rest of the world were profoundly affected by each other.

500 years of rollicking world history

A fascinating book. Mann splays out his curiosity and inquisitiveness over 500 years of world history. I felt at times that he rambled and got a bit lost on tangents, but I understood and recongized his general thesis. I also thought he was fair in characterizing the consequences of the "homogenocene" and globalization. It has destroyed some environments and ways of living, but it has brought with it many benefits, and it has generally raised the standard of living for millions of humans. And whether we like it or not, it is inevitable.

Robertson Dean is a fine narrator. He has a pleasing voice.

Entertaining historical discoveries

This book presents a very entertaining portrayal of little known historical trivia of factors of change caused by the Columbian Exchange between the new world and the old, after Columbus discovery in 1492. Most of these interesting stories of change and interconnectedness between the new and old worlds will have likely not been known by the reader prior to reading this book. Focuses to a large degree food crop exchanges, trade, exploration, culture. Although the stories are entertaining, I was expecting all of these various stories to be tied up into a conclusion forming the authors overall thesis for explaining all of these events. But this may not have been the intended purpose of the book, and it is still worth reading just for noting the interesting stories and observations by the author.

Excellent view of the birth of globalization

I enjoyed this book very much. Some may say it's similar to Guns, Germs, and Steel but unlike 1493 that that book suffered from Eurocentrism and over simplicity. The only gripe I had was a couple pronunciation issues: pronouncing Qin as 'kin' is one thing but saying 'Edinberg' for 'Edinburgh' is awful!

Great performance, fascinating overlooked history

Quite a misnomer to say Columbus 'created' these worlds, and the author confirms his overblown reputation in the book, but he means the journey that Columbus took which connected the world, maybe created new connections. Excellent reexamination of the historical impact of the potato, rubber and silver, among other daily items we take for granted, and the danger of believing a single story. Great book.

A new insight into history

Charles Mann summarizes vast spans of human history into this book and 1491 in a way that both intricately ties together significant events with a historians dedication, but feels accessible. I am grateful for his attention to the tiny corners of a history we never knew and is worth remembering.

Fascinating Mindbending History.

If you could sum up 1493 in three words, what would they be?

Changes your Worldview. Here is a lot of the dark matter that our school history texts never mentioned. Forget kings and statesmen; here are the real players: the lowly worm, the tiny bacteria, the odd plant, the parasite and a whole cast of greedy, stupid, and heroic humans all playing their gigantic parts in interweaving threads of change, growth and destruction. You will never view history the same after this. And you will talk about it until your friends either kill you or read it themselves.

What other book might you compare 1493 to and why?

1491- the same astonishing kind of information looking backwards from 1492. What was really here in the American Continent.

Learning 1493

A modern updating of Crosby's classic The Columbian Exchange, Mann traces the biological, epidemiological, and agricultural impact of trade between Europe, Asia and the America's after 1493.

1493 is a book for fans of Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and Morris' Why the West Rules -- for Now.

If you like your history to be big, the scope to be wide, but to be tied into how you eat and pay your way in the world, then 1493 is probably perfect.

The last time I learned about the Columbian Exchange was in high school. Learning dates and the sequence of events, and getting familiar with maps and geography, was central to my high school history experience. As a history major in college the emphasis on maps, dates, and events diminished, as the work in primary sources came to the forefront.

I can't imagine 1493 will be much required in college history courses, as this type of historical narrative for a popular audience (written by a journalist and not a historian) probably does not conform to how postsecondary history is taught. This is perhaps too bad, as I just did not know most of the history of Columbian Exchange described in 1493.

Learning how to "do history", to work like historians, is probably not a bad thing. But most history undergraduate students will not go on to graduate school. A book like 1493, a book with strong opinions and lots of dates, geography, people and events, might be an example of the kind of works we should make room for in our history courses.