277 pages including index and bibliography. A small section of the front paste down suffers from index damage, else a clean, unmarked and solid copy. Overseas customers please note the book is heavy and will attract additional postage. "Published in conjunction with a quincentennial exhibition at the Smithsonian, this informative volume chronicles the revolutionary effects of Columbus's discovery of America on the cultures of the New and Old worlds. Included are essays on how American food crops--maize, potatoes and tomatoes--changed the agricultural patterns and dietary habits of Europe; how the importation of cattle, horses and sheep from Spain transformed the ecology of the American hemisphere; ``the human liking for the taste of sweetness'' and its implications for sugar production in the New World; and the decimation of pre-Columbian societies by diseases introduced by their European conquerors. Scholarly yet accessible, these essays aim for a fair perspective on the ``real meaning of 1492,'' given the precarious state of the world today with its depleted resources and tragically despoiled environment." (Publisher's Weekly) CONTENTS: Seeds of change / Herman J. Viola The demise of the Fifth Sun / Jane MacLaren Walsh and Yoko Sugiura American food crops in the Old World / William H. McNeill New World, vineyard to the Old / Henry Hobhouse Metamorphosis of the Americas / Alfred W. Crosby Ranching in the New World / Deb Bennett and Robert S. Hoffmann Pleasure, profit, and satiation / Sidney W. Mintz Antigua slaves and their struggle to survive / David Barry Gaspar Galways plantation, Montserrat / Lydia M. Pulsipher Savoring Africa in the New World / Robert L. Hall Hispanic American heritage / Joseph P. Sanchez An American Indian perspective / George P. Horse Capture Health and disease in the pre-Columbian world / John W. Verano and Douglas H. Ubelaker Three faces of Eden / Stanwyn G. Shetler Nature's future / Steven King and Liliana Campos Dudley.