Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World

Jack Weatherford, a professor at Macalester College here in St. Paul, will change the way you think about world history. In this quick-reading and accessible book, he shows how Europeans were influenced by the technology, goods, and ideas of Native Americans. Weatherford argues that European nations couldn't have afforded expensive colonization attempts without the gold and silver looted from the Aztecs and Inca, and wouldn't have had the colonists but for a population explosion fed by Native American crops like corn and potatoes. If you thought Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond was a real eye-opener, you will want to see what Indian Givers has to offer. -- János

Request Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World from the Saint Paul Public Library.