Anyone here read it or know much about it? Very interesting so far.

Read it. Liked it.

I read it when it came out a year or two ago and it has stimulated some extra reading. I spent some time recently digging for artifacts on a site in central texas and it is amazing how far back this state was settled, albeit by some fairly primitive peoples compared to the ones Mann writes about primarily.

A couple of friends who are serious part time archaeologists who work on digs in central america think Mann is a good jumping off point for understanding what the americas may have been like before us pale people showed up.

I would also recommend two books by Alfred Crosby, being The Columbian Exchange and Ecological Imperialism, which deal with what the europeans brought with them and took home in terms of plants and animals and how this led to huge changes. For example, they brought cattle and sheep, which, when they went feral in south Texas, changed the place from grassland to mesquite and brush almost overnight. Both are available from Cambridge University Press

And try to imagine Italy without tomatoes.

I've heard that it took the Europeans a while to warm up to the tomato.... they thought that it was poisonous.

Also, don't forget the Irish and their potatoes!

Was tobacco also brought to whitey from the Americas?

Whitey gets tobacco, potatoes, tomatos, and corn.

Redman gets smallpox and syphillis.

Seems like a fair trade.

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For example, they brought cattle and sheep, which, when they went feral in south Texas, changed the place from grassland to mesquite and brush almost overnight

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I have also heard that this was due to man being there to stop grass fires. Fires kept significant tree grown down in central TX.

Hey Redman got fire water and horses too, one out of the four ain't bad

In answer to the original question: I read the book but found it getting more "scientific" in it's tone and I thought it started to drag towards the end.

Also, it seemed like he tries to offer the other point of view, but abandons that halfway through and then ends up mocking anyone who could disagree with his assertions.

Overall, I think it a highly interesting topic many people know nothing about and this is about as accessible as I have seen it get. The book covers alot of ground but definitely has alot of interesting facts and purported facts to consider.

I thought they (the natives) gave syphillis to Europe.

affirm primrose syphyllis and nearly every tropical disease (chagas fever for one). They also gave us the edible strawberry.

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Whitey gets tobacco, potatoes, tomatos, and corn.

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Add chocolate to that list too

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For example, they brought cattle and sheep, which, when they went feral in south Texas, changed the place from grassland to mesquite and brush almost overnight

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The spaniards and early settlers described the region as a sea of grass. Now we got nothing but a sea of cactus and mesquite. The coastal plains are preserved in a few areas like Padre Island NS and Aransas NWR where they still burn and do not have cattle.

What about the wheel? DId they have that before the EUropeans?

I believe the wheel orginated in Mesopotamia. Since the South American cultures never domesticated large animals besides the Llama (which they did not use for transport), I don't believe they ever saw the wheel as anything more than a toy.

i just started reading...

the (aztecs?) in central mexico had small wheels that were novelties basically or childrens toys, but they never figured out the concept of using wheel to decrease work burden.

Not going to say that the Europeans were the be all and end all, because they had only just barely achieved parity with China at this time. But the natives in North America were true savages and the South American tribes had all reached their zenith and were going downhill, with the possible exception of the Aztecs, but their culture had certainly become frozen in its development, because the challenge-and-response nature of development had been frozen by their universal ascendancy. They were masters of all around them and therefore lost all need to innovate.