A book about the convenient myopia which, through the ages, has allowed - and continues to allow - the West to see other peoples as subjects, infidels, even "savages". The authors begin by setting Columbus' travels in context and revealing the extent to which his "voyage of discovery" mirrored the colonial anxieties of the times. This is an account of Eurocentricity in its most potent forms - from the medieval view of demons and demigods, to the colonial perception that those who were not like us were somehow less than human, existing only to be used like any other commodity.