This is an explanation of why Europe managed to colonise the New World – and to a lesser extent, why the Viking attempts to colonise Newfoundland failed, as did the crusaders attempt to colonise the middle east. While it makes the case for the unintended horrors of new germs released upon New World peoples, one of the more interesting theses concerns why New World diseases didn’t affect Old world peoples nearly so badly, and why European plants (weeds) spread in the New World much more than the New world plants spread in Europe. There aren’t many books which ask if the botanic dominance of the humble dandelion can be linked to the rise and fall of empires.

Three bonuses for NZ readers: a lengthy chapter on NZ (he spent a year or two here while writing the book); a brilliant exposition of how the early navigators learnt to cross oceans given unhelpful oceanic wind patterns; and the story of how some of the Canary Islands were over-run by over-fecund rabbits immediately after their European discovery in the fifteenth century. If only some of our pakeha ancestors had read their history books before concotting their hare-brained schemes to introduce rabbits here.

Andrew

“Europe’s Inner Demons”, about the great European witch-hunt of the 16th and 17th century

“The Pursuit of the Millennium: revolutionary millennarians and mystical anarchists of the middle ages”

Both focus closely on their subjects but say a lot about core beliefs/behaviours in Western culture, even in these mostly post-Christian times. Plus he’s a terrific writer.

http://www.andrewgupta.com/luther/ (online version)

Very interesting from several perspectives.
1. Church history and theology (why I’m reading it)
2. It’s a key point in moving from the middle ages to modern separation of church and state
3. Interesting to read in the light of modern blogs and twitter – i.e. how ideas were debated (flame wars aren’t new!).