With his trademark range and independence of thought, Felipe Fernandez- Armesto sweeps aside the tidy separation between the enlightened first world' United States and Canada, and less privileged Latin America'. He shows us why it is impossible to understand the history of North, Central and South America in isolation. From the emergence of the first human civilisations through the arrival of Europeans and up to today, the land mass has been bound together in a complex web of inter-relationships - from migration and trade to religion, slavery, warfare, culture, food and the spread of political ideas. For most of human history, it was the South that dominated the North - and, as he argues in his provocative conclusion, it might well again

About the Author

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a Professorial Fellow in History and Geography at Queen Mary College, London, and a member of the faculty of modern history at Oxford University. He is the author of ten books and the editor of several more, including the TIMES ATLAS OF WORLD EXPLORATION. He is a frequent journalist and has presented "Analysis" on BBC Radio 4.

Prizes

A bestselling writer, whose books have been translated into 22 languages This is the first book to trace the common history of all the Americas Written with the range, opinion, wit and insight that readers have come to expect from this author 'This wonderfully sharp and provocative book should become essential reading for anybody interested in the history of America' TLS 'Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is one of the most brilliant historians currently at work. All his books are bravura displays of erudition, fizzing with seminal thoughts, original ideas and new syntheses of existing knowledge. His latest, ambitious production is no exception' Independent 'For anyone wanting to understand American colonial beginnings, this is the place to begin' Peter J. Ling, History Today