Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Born to Die : Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650 by Noble David Cook ISBN: 0-521-62730-3 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 13 February, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thorough and Scholarly Study of Crucial Issue
Comment: This is a very thorough and well organized study of one of the most important and ghastly events in human history. In the century following the European discovery of the Americas, approximately 90% of the native population perished. The agents of this demographic and cultural catastrophe were an apparently unceasing series of epidemics transmitted by European and African immigrants to the Western Hemisphere. Isolated for millenia from the Western Hemisphere, the native peoples of the Americas were virgin soil for smallpox, plague, influenza, measles, and a wide range of other serious infections. Native American susceptibility to epidemic disease and not any technological or cultural advantage was the key factor allowing Europeans to conquer the Americas. The conquest of Western Hemisphere and European dominance of its resources resulted in a huge economic and ecological windfall for European states. This windfall was a key factor propelling the global dominance of European culture and states.
Cook does an excellent job of systematically surveying the various epidemics and their demographic impacts. This is difficult because of the need to cover an extended period of time, a broad variety of regions, and the fragmentary nature of the data. This book is an excellent summary of available knowledge on this important topic. Very organized and written competently, this book will be the standard reference on this topic.
Rating: 5
Summary: It shocks in its gritty realism yet keeps you interested
Comment: An excellent account of the history of the Americas, it focuses on the diseases while keeping in touch with both the cruelty suffered by the natives and the culture shock. It goes deeper into the less dramatic side (where less writers dwell in) and makes this a must read for anyone interested in the period.
Rating: 4
Summary: Compelling assesment of diseases in 16th century America
Comment: The collapse of the native population of the western hemisphere, where some 90 percent of the inhabitants perished within a century, was one of the greatest demographic disasters in history. In this well-detailed analysis, Cook lays the effect of Old World epidemics on a virgin soil population. Completely free of the impassioned polemical tones which so often characterized many of the books on the Columbian exchange,Cook presents a the framework needed for students of 16th century America. While not ignoring cruelty and war as a factor in the decline of certain groups, Cook points out that the number of Spaniards present during the 16th century was too small(less than 250,000)to have killed or worked to death the tens of millions already present in the Western Hemisphere. Smallpox,measles, and influenza ripped through the natives like a hurricane,preparing the way for European conquest and settlement.
 |
Title: Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall ISBN: 0195160770 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
 |
Title: History of the Inca Realm by Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Harry B. Iceland ISBN: 0521637597 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
 |
Title: The Early Spanish Main by Carl Ortwin Sauer, Ortwin Sauer, Anthony Pagden ISBN: 0520014154 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: March, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
 |
Title: Early Latin America : A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil by James Lockhart, Stuart B. Schwartz ISBN: 0521299292 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 30 September, 1983 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
 |
Title: The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches With Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Other (Penguin Classics) by J. M. Cohen, Cohen J.M., Christopher Columbus ISBN: 0140442170 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
