Unlike old-school textbooks that portrayed the Age of Exploration as advanced European civilizations exploring primitive worlds, Aronson and Glenn take a global view, seeing 1492 as the pivotal date in human history—“the first encounter between advanced civilizations that had developed an ocean apart.” Though the Americas suffered from disease, malnourishment and abuse and lost as much as 90 percent of their population, the long-term effect of this contact between societies was “the beginning of the modern age of worldwide connection,” a new global world, in which foods, ideas, religions and fashions were exchanged. The text is full of fascinating ideas and speculations and is enlivened by maps, engravings, prints, photographs and other illustrations. Readers with some amount of existing knowledge of the period will benefit most from the volume. Add this to Aronson’s growing body of fine historical works that are changing how young readers think about history. (biographical dictionary, glossary, sources & websites, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)
