Technology, Disease and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Essays Reappraising the Guns and Germs Theories (History of Warfare, Vol 2) [Hardcover]

George Raudzens (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2001 | ISBN-10: 9004117458 | ISBN-13: 978-9004117457

The essays in this study reassess evidence about the plausability of the widely accepted guns and germs theories which put forward firepower advantages and disease importation as the two main causes of European expansion overseas. All argue that these theories are important but oversimplified. The effectiveness of firepower and disease impacts on specific groups of New World indigines were always conditioned by time, place and cultural characteristics. Long range communication control was sometimes more important. Above all, motives driving invasions and conquests were often more influential than means and methodologies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2002 by Choice (a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association)
'"Raudzens has edited a stunning new collection of essays aimed at reassessing paradigms of conquest that attribute European succeess to superior weaponry or disease...Taken together the eight essays in this collection represent an enormously important new direction in colonialist studies. Highest recommendations for all collections.'
"Choice, 2002.
'"a well-selected and thought-provoking volume'
Patricia A. Crouch, "Sixteenth Century Journal, 2002.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9004117458
• ISBN-13: 978-9004117457
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,172,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)