Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Booktalking.

My selection is "TheWorld Made New: why the Age of Exploration happened and & how it changed the world" written by Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn.

What particular set of circumstances existed to set in motion the Age of Exploration?  How did those circumstances influence the events that followed and change the world as it had been known until that time?  This National Geographic publication challenges readers to discover the answers to these questions and more. Aronson and Glenn give their audience a contemporary look at the new world and old as they existed before, during, and after the events ushered in by the arrival of European explorers in the Americas. 

The text covers three significant time periods and begins with an introduction to the people and cultures that existed in America and their counterparts in Europe prior to the voyage of Columbus.  Readers are offered a modern, global approach to this turning point is world history that is far more comprehensive and thoughtful than a mere clash between primitive vs. advanced societies.  The authors provide a balanced look at what both Native and European people lost and gained by the contact while remaining sensitive to the impact that contact had on America's extant civilizations.

The authors continue their work with a discussion of some of the explorers  that followed Columbus and provide timelines, maps, and illustrations to enrich the text. The consequences of exploration are the authors' final focus as they lead readers through the negative and positive impacts for the world at large that resulted and are still being felt today.