''The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 '' is a 1972 book by

Alfred W. Crosby Alfred Worcester Crosby Jr. (January 15, 1931 – March 14, 2018) was a professor of History, Geography, and American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and University of Helsinki. He was the author of books including '' The Columbian ...

on the

Columbian exchange The Columbian exchange, also known as the Columbian interchange, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the New World (the Americas) in the Western Hemisphere, and the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) in the Eastern Hemis ...

, coining that term and helping to found the field of environmental history. The exchange was of cultivated plants, domestic animals, diseases, and human culture between the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

and the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

, in the centuries immediately following

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

's voyage to the Americas in 1492.

Book

Crosby begins by examining the contrasts between the

and the

in the 15th century. He then looks at the way the

Conquistadores Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

brought disease and death to the indigenous peoples they encountered. He considers which Old World plants and animals were brought to the New World. The book then re-evaluates the early history of

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

, a sexually transmitted disease which broke out in Europe immediately after Columbus and his sailors returned to Europe. Crosby examines the effect of New World foods on the demography of the Old World, suggesting that these had a substantial effect on people's nutrition and population growth in the centuries following the exchange. He concludes by looking at the continuing effects of the exchange. The book is illustrated with monochrome reproductions of historic depictions of the exchange, such as of " King Ferdinand looks out across the Atlantic as Columbus lands in the West Indies", and with maps such as of the distributions of blood group genes in the world's aboriginal populations. The book was first published in 1972. A revised edition was brought out in 2003.

Reception

First edition

G. S. Dunbar called Crosby's work a "lively little book", noting his invention of the term "biohistory", and the reluctance of historians to explore that field, which lay somewhat outside "their traditional literary education". Wayne D. Rasmussen wrote that farmers are well aware of the

pests PESTS was an anonymous American activist group formed in 1986 to critique racism, tokenism, and exclusion in the art world. PESTS produced newsletters, posters, and other print material highlighting examples of discrimination in gallery represent ...

and

diseases A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are asso ...

that follow cultural and biological exchanges. He commented that the book's key theme is not the list of diseases and foods that were exchanged, but the "assessments of the effects these exchanges had upon the ecological balance in each hemisphere." Recommending the book, he called it a "brief, but well-annotated argument", describing it as controversial but outside the "usual historical boundaries".

30th anniversary edition

Frederick Liers wrote in 2005 that Crosby had difficulty getting the book published, and that when he did, conventional historians paid it little attention. That did not stop its message, of environmental history, from becoming widely accepted within the following three decades. In the foreword to the 2003 edition of the book, J. R. McNeill says that in 1972 "Crosby's ideas met with indifference from most historians, neglect from many publishers, and hostility from at least some reviewers, (but) they now figure prominently in conventional presentations of modern history." Today, the book is a founding text of the field of environmental history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Columbian Exchange 1972 non-fiction books Environmental history Non-fiction books about Indigenous peoples of the Americas 1972 in the environment

Book

Reception

First edition

30th anniversary edition

See also

References