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

by Charles Mann, Rebecca Stefoff (Adapted by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609806637
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	01/26/2016
Series:	For Young People Series
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	350,700
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

CHARLES C. MANN is the author of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, a New York Times bestseller, and 1491: 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 for The Atlantic Monthly, Science, and Wired, Mann has covered the intersection of science, technology, and commerce for many newspapers and magazines here and abroad, including National 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 called Before 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's The Third Chimpanzee, and Charles C. Mann's bestselling 1491.

Table of Contents

Introduction: About this Book

PART ONE: One World o   Chapter 1: Two Monuments o   Chapter 2: Reversals of Fortune

PART TWO: Atlantic Journeys o   Chapter 3: The Tobacco Coast o   Chapter 4: Evil Air

PART THREE: Pacific Journeys o   Chapter 5: Shiploads of Silver o   Chapter 6: Lovesick Grass, Foreign Tubers, and Jade Rice

PART FOUR: Europe in the World o   Chapter 7: Potato Power, Potato Pests o   Chapter 8: Wealth That Grew on Trees

PART FIVE: Africa in the World o   Chapter 9: Crazy Soup o   Chapter 10: Forest of Fugitives

Afterword: Currents of Life
Timeline
Glossary
Index
Permissions

Editorial Reviews

"This book will help students understand the origins and continuing consequences of the globalization that was the almost immediate result of European exploration and exploitation of the New World ... An excellent addition to history collections." —Mary Mueller, Starred Review, School Library Journal 

"Adapted by Stefoff for teen audiences, this riveting account shows how the complex, interconnected economic and environmental consequences of the European 'discovery' of the Americas shaped many unexpected aspects of the modern world. The collision of unfamiliar flora, fauna, and microbes produced unforeseen wealth, conflict, exploitation, disease, misery, and social upheaval ... All of these fascinating stories are woven together in a clear, compelling narrative. The complex subject matter is impressively handled with deftness and wit. A provocative, gripping account." —Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating story of how our modern world came to be. Globalization isn’t the recent phenomenon we thought—follow the breadcrumb trail of something as innocent as a potato and discover how it led to colossal change worldwide. Watch with horror the domino effect caused by greed for silver, and find out how something as tiny as a mosquito changed the world. A captivating mosaic of game changers that shaped modernity." —Jill Rubalcaba, author of Every Bone Tells a Story, Finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults

"An engrossing history of almost everything—ecology, botany, politics, economics, disease, and anthropology—since Columbus’s arrival in and departure from the Americas, 1493 for Young People will inform and engage its audience. Charles C. Mann’s original acclaimed work has been ably and entertainingly reduced for younger readers, who will appreciate his mind- and world-expanding ideas and knowledge." —Cynthia Levinson, author of We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March, Winner of the IRA Young Adult Nonfiction Award

"This is a book of big ideas and grand movements in human history, told through engaging stories about explorers, mountains of silver, deadly mosquitoes, and much more." —Steve Sheinkin, author of Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, a Newbery Honor Book and Winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults 

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2016
Gr 7–10—Stefoff abridges and simplifies Mann's adult title 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (Knopf, 2011), objectively describing how European exploration and the resulting Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, and diseases rapidly made the world "global" in outlook and practice, with a mixed legacy of wealth and higher living standards, oppression, losses of entire populations, and environmental degradation. Both versions share format and topics and are not complete histories of global exploration and exchange. They instead focus on large and small factors, such as the failed Scottish colony in Panama, European earthworms in North America, and Africans' partial immunity to malaria, that had unexpected and significant effects on nations, agriculture, and the spread of slavery. Sections on often-overlooked and important topics such as the trans-Pacific trade that destabilized the Chinese government, the unexpected and enduring environmental and human costs of single-crop (potatoes) and industrial (rubber trees) agriculture, and the "crazy soup" of mixed population groups are informative and thought-provoking. Maps and large illustrations supplement the text. More detailed than Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn's The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World (National Geographic, 2007) and a good companion to Mann's Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 (S. & S., 2009), this book will help students understand the origins and continuing consequences of the globalization that was the almost immediate result of European exploration and exploitation of the New World. VERDICT An excellent addition to history collections.—Mary Mueller, Rolla Public Schools, MO

School Library Journal

2015-11-03
In this sweeping world history, Mann chronicles the spread of globalization, examining the mingling of the world's ecosystems through travel, trade, colonization, conquest, and migration, from its beginnings in the 15th century to its continued impact in the present day. Adapted by Stefoff for teen audiences, this riveting account shows how the complex, interconnected economic and environmental consequences of the European "discovery" of the Americas shaped many unexpected aspects of the modern world. The collision of unfamiliar flora, fauna, and microbes produced unforeseen wealth, conflict, exploitation, disease, misery, and social upheaval. Mann examines such fascinating subjects as the connections between malaria and slavery, how silver mined in Bolivia funded economic development in rural China and wars waged by the Spanish empire, how the rubber plant enabled industrialization, and how the potato plant fed millions of Europe's poor for centuries and then caused the deaths of millions. All of these fascinating stories are woven together in a clear, compelling narrative. The complex subject matter is impressively handled with deftness and wit. A provocative, gripping account. (photos, maps, timeline, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews