HALF A MILLENNIUM AGO, a German scholar created a map that represented for the first time a landmass Europeans had just come across. Martin Waldseemüller’s map, published in France, shows the landmass as two separate bodies, the northernmost being a smallish hook of land with a chain of islands trailing below, labelled “Parias.” To the south, a far larger area marked “America” is designated as property of the king of Castile. Thirty-five nations now occupy that landmass, and historian Greg Grandin’s audacious new book weaves them into a narrative that will, for many readers, upend conceptions of the hemisphere. Grandin wisely refrains from including much about present trends in the area formerly known as “Parias,” but each day’s headlines further confirm the deep-rooted patterns that his brilliant and urgently needed history traces.
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