Be Specific About Books Supposing 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
| Original Title: | 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |
| ISBN: | 1400032059 (ISBN13: 9781400032051) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Julia Ward Howe Prize (2006), Spur Award Nominee for Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction (2010) |
Charles C. Mann
Paperback | Pages: 541 pages Rating: 4.03 | 61224 Users | 3665 Reviews
Description In Favor Of Books 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.
Specify Appertaining To Books 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
| Title | : | 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |
| Author | : | Charles C. Mann |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | 2nd edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 541 pages |
| Published | : | October 10th 2006 by Vintage (first published August 9th 2005) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. North American Hi.... American History. Anthropology. Science |
Rating Appertaining To Books 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Ratings: 4.03 From 61224 Users | 3665 ReviewsColumn Appertaining To Books 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
As someone who writes professionally in this area (unabashed plug: watch for God's Mercies, Doubleday Canada, in October 07) I have high praise for this title, a long-overdue assessment of native culture and civilization before (and at) contact with Europeans. I'm still reading it, but I've been impressed so far.[I've now finished, see below.] Anyone who enjoyed it should also consider Elaine Dewar's Bones, which explores the archaeological controversy of how long people have been in the NewAs Mann suggests in his preface many of us have been taught that prior to Christopher Columbus showing up, North and South America were pristine lands, sparsely populated by primitive Indians with unsophisticated cultures, who lived at the mercy of Mother Nature. Combining archaeology, history, science and even some psychology/sociology and as the subtitle suggests The author paints a very different picture of the New World before it was discovered. And for the most part 1491 is a fascinating
Fantastic. Non-fiction books of 500+ pages usually make me antsy but this terrific re-rendering of New World history had me glued to the pages. I learned so much that it was, for me, quite mind-boggling.Maize is terribly promiscuous.Northern America, Central America, and South America all had tremendous histories of advanced cultures before Europeans ever knew about these lands. But whereas there was knowledge of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, this book goes even further to explore the many
(Note: Ive learned from 1492 and multiple Indian writers and activists that most prefer the terms American Indian and Indian to Native American. For that reason, I will use those terms in this review.)Its been a while since Ive read a work of nonfiction, and I dont think Ive ever read one for pleasure and not as a school requirement. I chose this as my first because Ive always wanted to learn more about American Indian history. I knew before picking up 1492 that I received a woefully inadequate
My favorite recent history book, Mann surveys the breadth and complexity of indigenous cultures in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Some of this research was familiar to me. When I taught American history in the 2000s, I would start with such 'snapshots' of Cahokia, the Olmecs, the Serpent Mound, the Maya, the great trade networks that connected the continent. But even that information was hard to find. Good luck finding even a mention of it in the school textbooks. Despite having
Mindblowing. Everyone should read this book. It's amazing to me how much historians got wrong -- and what this book illuminates is why historians get such things wrong. Some of it is flat-out racism and ethnocentrism -- historians' tendency to dismiss oral tradition as crap, for example, when it turns out most Indian groups have done a good job of keeping track of their own past. Some of it, however, was simply lost knowledge that's only now being rediscovered, with the aid of modern technology
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