★★★★★ 5
Mesmerizing; shows the butterfly effect in action
Format: Paperback
Charles Mann’s “1493” is about globalization and the Homogenocene epoch. Unlike the plenitude of other recent books about globalization, however, “1493” is about biological globalization rather than economic globalization. The book traces the results of the Columbian Exchange, with chapters devoted to tobacco, the earthworm, malaria, silver, potatoes and sweet potatoes, guano and rubber.
The book is in four parts, and is written in an accessible, non-academic style. I found the first three parts of the book, which cover the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the Atlantic, the Pacific and Europe, respectively, to be captivating. These parts of the book demonstrated the fascinating interconnectedness of all things in a globalized society (in other words the “butterfly effect”) – for example, how transporting the sweet potato to Western China led to population migrations from Eastern to Western China, deforestation and overflowing of the Yellow River. The general result of such biological globalization is the creation of the Homogenocene epoch, a term which Mann uses to describe the biological homogenization that has replaced biological diversity since the time of Columbus. In the first three parts of the book, Mann demonstrates how history, biology and chemistry are all interrelated, and how today’s world continues to be influenced by the Columbian Exchange.
I found the last part of the book to be less impressive than the first three parts. Part Four is called “Africa in the World,” but confusingly it is about South America, not Africa. Parts of it read more like travel writing than history. Still, the book deserves five stars for the first three thrilling parts, which successfully trace the mesmerizing history of various everyday biological substances.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2017
