The Americas: A Hemispheric History (Modern Library Chronicles) - Hardcover

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375504761 ISBN 13: 9780375504761

Publisher: Modern Library, 2003

Synopsis

From food to the spread of political ideas, the landmass from northern Canada to the southern tip of Argentina is complexly bound together, yet these connections are generally ignored. In this groundbreaking and vividly rendered work, leading historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto tells, for the first time, the story of our hemisphere as a whole, showing why it is impossible to understand North, Central, and South America in isolation, and looking instead to the intricate and common forces that continue to shape the region.

With his trademark erudition, imagination, and thematic breadth, Fernández-Armesto ranges over commerce, religion, agriculture, the environment, the slave trade, culture, and politics. He takes us from man’s arrival in North America to the Colonial and Independence periods, to the “American Century” and beyond. For most of human history, the south dominated the north: as Fernández-Armesto argues in his provocative conclusion, it might well again.

A panoramic yet richly textured story that embodies fresh ways of looking at cross-cultural exchange, conflict, and interaction, The Americas demolishes our traditional ways of looking at the hemisphere, putting in place a compelling and fruitful new vision.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

“A bold historian.” —The New York Times Book Review

“[Millennium is] not only the best history of the world we now have, it is also the best comparative history of the empires of the world. Everyone should read it.” —Anthony Pagden, The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Readers of popular history have come to expect [Fernández-Armesto] to deliver a read filled with wonders, important insights, wit and outrageous opinion.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fernández-Armesto can personalize broad historical trends without sinking into triviality. . . . History written at its best.” —Booklist

About the Author:

Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a professor of history and geography at Queen Mary, University of London, and a member of the Faculty of Modern History of Oxford University. His books, which have been translated into twenty-two languages, include Columbus; Millennium; Civilizations: Culture, Ambition and the Transformation of Nature; and Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0375504761
• ISBN 13: 9780375504761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256