The world is the way it is today because 600 years ago Portugal, a small nation on the edge of Europe, sent its sailors off in search of spices, souls and slaves. In Making Waves: The Portuguese Adventure Mary Soderstrom takes us to places touched by the Portuguese- from India to Brazil, from Newfoundland to San Diego-telling a tale of adventure and triumph, occasionally mixed with a measure of sadness. Portugal's influence resonates in the 21st century far beyond the 11 million people who speak Portuguese in the mother country, or the other 220 million who speak the language around the world.

The Portuguese-taught the rest of Europe, including Christopher Columbus, how to ride the winds of the high seas; reached the riches of the East decades before their rivals the Spanish; spread their language and culture around the world by making love, not war; traded in slaves but in 1761 were the first Europeans to outlaw slavery at home; pioneered city planning-the rebuilding of Lisbon after the Great Earthquake of 1755 was a visionary rethinking of a city not equaled until Haussmann redesigned Paris a century later; invented standardized building methods using pre-cut wood 75 years before the first balloon frame building in Chicago; and showed how to throw out a dictatorship peacefully and change society profoundly in the Carnation Revolution of 1974.