IMPORTANT NOTICE! We will not meet in July, so join us on August sixth.

While July's book "ARGO" was a true story about a tiny snippet of recent history with a happy ending where the good guys won; our book for July and June paints a darker picture of the world since 1492. With a world-wide brush the author portrays the ecological and economic consequences of the discovery of the New World, results which the author calls the "Columbian Exchange."
For example, he claims it was biology, and not superior technology in the form of the potato which enabled the half-starved European nations who had been suffering regular famines to dominate the world. He goes on to describe how Spain turned riches pillaged from Native American civilizations into the biblical Four Horsemen: Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death which were unleashed upon the new and old Worlds which he called the "Columbian Exchange." His chief example was the mountain of silver in the Andes which was mined under horrifying human costs and then shipped to Europe to finance Spain's religious wars and across the Pacific to China with disastrous economic results.

Were the horrors of the Columbian Exchange an inevitable by-product of the Western Hemisphere being isolated and genetic drift? Or were they the results of Man's greed? Or divine payback for the ill-treatment of indigenous peoples of all continents? Come join the History Group on
August 6th and join us and listen to the discussion as well as listening to part of an interview with the author.

NLS ANNOTATION:
1493: uncovering the new world Columbus created DB 73773
Mann, Charles C. Reading time: 25 hours, 23 minutes.
Read by Ken Kliban.

Bestsellers
World History and Affairs

Following 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus (DB 61198), science journalist Mann studies the convergence of the Old and New Worlds and explores its long-term effects. Concentrates on ecology and economics and explains how the discovery of the Americas led to globalization and the modern world. Bestseller. 2011.
Download 1493: uncovering the new world Columbus created 3:35 PMT
Mann, Charles C. Reading time: 25 hours, 23 minutes.
Read by Ken Kliban.

Bestsellers
World History and Affairs

Following 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus (DB 61198), science journalist Mann studies the convergence of the Old and New Worlds and explores its long-term effects. Concentrates on ecology and economics and explains how the discovery of the Americas led to globalization and the modern world. Bestseller. 2011.
Download 1493: uncovering the new world Columbus created

Also available from Bookshare and Audible.

The group will meet at the same time the First Tuesday of every month and will be facilitated by Don Queen, (Email: queens@pacbell.net