Historical Research

I've been reading Charles Mann's new book 1493, the sequel, natch, to his awesome historical book 1491. 1491 was about evidence that the pre-Columbian Native American societies were far richer, more populated, and complex than we think of them -- that what is now the Amazon jungle was heavily cultivated by millions of Indians who were wiped out by disease before any but the very first white travelers saw them. 1493 is about the huge changes in the world after the New and Old Worlds became li...