Abulafia, David. The Discovery of Man: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008. An excellent synthesis that places the European “discovery” of the Americas within the context of the formation of the Atlantic world.
Fagan, Brian. Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World. New York: Basic Books, 2006. Ties growing European demand for fish to religious and political changes in Europe and presents fishing as key to European expansion across the North Atlantic and into North America.
Pauketat, Timothy R. Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking, 2009. Brings together the latest historical and archeological scholarship on the premiere example of a Mississippian chiefdom in one compact and readable package.
Reséndez, Andrés. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca: The Extraordinary Tale of a Shipwrecked Spaniard Who Walked across America in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Basic Books, 2007. A beautifully written account of Cabeza de Vaca’s journey that strives to capture Indian as well as Spanish perspectives on a North America that was about to change drastically as a result of Spanish incursions.
Townsend, Camilla. Malintizin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. A sensitive account of Malintzín and her world that explains how and why so many Nahuas chose to join Cortés in attacking the Mexica, an act that enabled the Spanish to conquer Mexico.
Published by Oxford University Press
Northrup, David. Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450–1850. 2002. A concise overview of relations between Europeans and Africans that emphasizes African perspectives and motives.
Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Argues that the devastation Europeans and Americans wrought on Indian peoples from 1492 to the end of the 19th century is the most horrific genocide the world has ever seen.
Outline of Prehistory and History—Southeastern North American and the Caribbean. Maintained by the National Park Service, this web site provides detailed information about the native peoples and their environmental impacts, archeological and historical evidence of their ways of life, and the impacts of European contact and colonization on their societies.
Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World. With images of artifacts and artwork and interpretation, this web site explores the Spanish presence in the Americas and its effects on Indian peoples.
History: Native America. With links to dozens of other web sites and their own interpretative materials, this page from the University of Washington is a great resource for much Native American history from pre-history to the present.