1493 for Young People ─ From Columbus's Voyage to Globalization

1493 for Young People by Charles C. Mann tells the gripping story of globalization through travel, trade, colonization, and migration from its beginnings in the fifteenth century to the present. How did the lowly potato plant feed the poor across Europe and then cause the deaths of millions? How did the rubber plant enable industrialization? What is the connection between malaria, slavery, and the outcome of the American Revolution? How did the fabled silver mountain of sixteenth-century Bolivia fund economic development in the flood-prone plains of rural China and the wars of the Spanish Empire? Here is the story of how sometimes the greatest leaps also posed the greatest threats to human advancement.

Mann's language is as plainspoken and clear as it is provocative, his research and erudition vast, his conclusions ones that will stimulate the critical thinking of young people.1493 for Young People provides tools for wrestling with the most pressing issues of today, and will empower young people as they struggle with a changing world.


From the Hardcover edition.

CHARLES C. MANN is the author of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, a New York Times bestseller, and1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, which won the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck Award for the best book of the year. A correspondent forThe Atlantic Monthly, Science, and Wired, Mann has covered the intersection of science, technology, and commerce for many newspapers and magazines here and abroad, includingNational Geographic, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post. In addition to 1491 and 1493, he is the co-author of five other books, one of which is a young person's version of 1491 calledBefore Columbus.

REBECCA STEFOFF has devoted her career to writing nonfiction books for young readers. Her publications include histories, literary biographies, an encyclopedia of maps, and numerous books on science and environmental issues. She has also adapted a number of landmark works in history and science: Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, Jared Diamond'sThe Third Chimpanzee, and Charles C. Mann's bestselling 1491.


From the Hardcover edition.