1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, by Charles Mann

RATING

1 star

N/A = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY (272 words or less)

I’ll be honest, after the introduction and the first chapter or two, I kind of lost interest in this one.  Not that the subject matter isn’t important though.  It was mainly a product of me taking too much time in between putting the book down and picking it back up, and by then, my mind was off to something else.

It is interesting to think about how one man and one year was a catalyst and demarcation line for our economic and ecological age, the homogenoscene.  The one thing I kept thinking about during the (brief) reading–the time of human history before 1493 must have seemed like modern times for those who were living in it, whether it be in BC times, medieval times, the Renaissance, etc.  And then 1493 occurred, East and West merging to spawn new modes of human civilization, and with a few hundred years of perspective, it’s seemingly obvious to think that anything and anyone before Columbus was surely living in ancient times.  It makes me wonder–will there be a future discovery as consequential (or even more so) that will almost certainly render us living right now in ancient times.  And what could that discovery be?  My mind automatically goes to something from out of this world (aliens and all that), but what if it is something native to Earth?  A new element or subatomic particle?  A new way to synthesize energy?  A new weapon of war or a tool of diplomacy?  So even though I didn’t really read the book, it was thought provoking enough for one star.