eliminated, mostly by disease. There was extensive disruption of societies and loss of environmental control as a result. Decreased environmental influence and resource competition would have led to population explosions in species such as the American bison and the passenger pigeon. Because fire clearing had ceased, forests would have expanded and become denser. The world discovered by Christopher Columbus began to change after his arrival, so Columbus "was also one of the last to see it in pure form". Mann concludes that we must look to the past to write the future. "Native Americans ran the continent as they saw fit. Modern nations must do the same. If they want to return as much of the landscape as possible to its state in 1491, they will have to create the world's largest gardens." Reception A 2005 The New York Times book review stated that the book's approach is "in the best scientific tradition, carefully sifting the evidence, never jumping to hasty conclusions, giving everyone a fair hearing -- the experts and the amateurs, the accounts of the Indians and of their conquerors. And rarely is he less than enthralling." Editions 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Knopf, 2005 . Ancient Americans: Rewriting the History of the New World. First UK edition. Published by Granta Books in 2005. 1491: The Americas Before Columbus. European edition. Published in Europe by Granta Books on 6 November 2006. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Second edition. Vintage, 2011 1491: Una nueva historia de las Américas antes de Colón (Spanish-language edition). Seven Stories Press, 2013. Sequel In 2011, Mann published his sequel, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. It explores the results of the European colonization of the Americas, a topic begun in Alfred Crosby's 1972 work The Columbian Exchange, which examined exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technologies after European encounter with the Americas. Mann added much new scholarship that had been developed in the 40 years since that book was published. Adaptation In 2017, an eight-episode documentary miniseries titled 1491: The Untold Story of the Americas Before Columbus was released by Animiki See Digital Production, Inc. and Arrow Productions. See also Archaeology of the Americas Beni savanna Columbian Exchange European colonization of the Americas Forest gardening Indian massacres Megafauna Population history of American indigenous peoples Quaternary extinction event Terra preta, anthropogenic soil found in the Amazon Basin Books