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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

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Publisher: Vintage
List Price: $15.95
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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. From the astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, which had running water, immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city, to the Mexican corn that was so carefully created in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering, 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.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 970.01
EAN: 9781400032051
ISBN: 1400032059
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 541
Publication Date: 2006-10-10
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2006-10-10
Studio: Vintage


SIMILAR ITEMS:

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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, clearly written
Comment: Mann writes clearly, even about technical subjects that sometimes need to be introduced. He explains how we know things, and what the controversies are, and what is still very much unresolved although the reader may have felt otherwise (like why the large mammals disappeared in North America, and just when the Indians migrated into the America's). While he wants to give the reader a more positive view of Indian culture and achievements, he does not ignore the bad, but puts it into context. For example, he compares estimates of the number of Triple Alliance (Aztec) sacrificial victims to the number of English executions in 16th century England. He does include more dynastic politics than is necessary (I find them interesting, but ultimately not very valuable to read about, kind of like historical gossip), while not including as much as he could about Indian philosophy and technology. Still, this is a truly fascinating book.

--------------------Summary -----------------------

By 2005, when this book was written, there had been dramatic changes in the view of pre-Columbian Indian societies. Population in the America's likely exceeded European population, and farming was widespread, having originated independently in 3 separate areas. In fact the majority of food crops planted today originated in the America's. Life was better for New England Indians than for most Europeans, and certainly they had a much greater sense of individual liberty. Cotton Indian clothing was more comfortable than European clothing, and their armor, in Central and South America, was more functional. It was textile based, and much lighter, if not quite as protective. In the Triple Alliance there was a good deal of philosophical thinking, and rudimentary education was mandatory. South American Indians had frigate sized boats.

Indians dramatically altered the landscape for farming in various ways. Irrigation and terracing were widespread practices. Artificial mounds and more extensive built up areas were used in floodplains. Fire was used extensively in North America to clear underbrush, and thin out or eliminate trees, and charcoal was used to enrich Amazon soils and prevent loss of water and leaching of minerals. In fact, this recent rediscovery means that the Amazon basin could be used extensively for farming. Indians also controlled populations of such animals as passenger pigeons and buffalo, which is why their numbers increased dramatically when the Indian population of North America declined dramatically.

European disease wiped out most of the Indians, often preceding the advent of colonists, as the disease was introduced by European traders and spread by Indian traders and war parties. It wasn't just that the Indians had never been subject to these diseases before. Because there had been a population bottleneck (i.e. Indians were descended from a limited number of ancestors who made it to North America), Indians had very similar HLA profiles. HLA's carry viral and bacterial particles to cell surfaces where they are presented to roaming white cells which then destroy the infected cells. However, HLA's can do this only if the particles "fit", and when there is limited HLA variability, it is more likely that no one in the population will have an HLA which will be useful against a new particle.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Broad in Scope, Narrow in Detail
Comment: 1491 sets out with the thesis that there is a lot more to "American History" than what is covered in high school textbooks. Throughout the course of the book Mann lays down wide-ranging evidence that the people and societies that occupied the Americas before Europeans arrived were much more complex than historians and the general population have traditionally given them credit for. Mann argues that with an anywhere from five to fifteen thousand year (and perhaps even more) head-start, the peoples of the Americas developed and cultivated cities, monuments and complete ways of life that rivaled, and at times bested, anything their contemporary European (and Asian) counterparts had to offer.

Mann's 1491 successfully argues that there was much more to the societies of the pre-Columbian Americas than has been traditionally thought as well as taught. The research that Mann put into this book through the course of many years is clear and apparent.

Where Mann lacked in this book was in detail. I believe his primary argument would have been better served -- that pre-Columbian cultures were much more sophisticated and complex than generally believed -- if he had reduced his number of examples and expounded further on selected cases.

However, because this book is so clearly well-researched, I would suggest it to anyone interested in the societies of the pre-Columbian Americas.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Revisionism at Its Best
Comment: Mann's book, while entertaining, is nothing more than speculative revisionism. The book does not read very easily because it jumps around from one topic to the next without warning frequently. Mann's intentions may have been good, but it doesn't excuse the fact that you can't rewrite history simply to promote an idealistic view of native cultures based on circumstantial evidence. He offers no hard facts to promote his patronizing image of Native American civilizations prior to Europeanization. Nonetheless I enjoyed the book because it does offer some new or "fresh" perspectives into Native American cultures prior to (but mainly after) 1492, but I treated it more as fictional entertainment rather than an authentic historical account.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good History Lesson
Comment: This book really teaches you some things you may not have learned while you where in high school, or maybe even in college especially if you are older than the age of 25-30. Some of the lessons taught are of finding information that some of the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations wher actually quite large and elaborate. Some had flowing water and others where the size of if not larger than Paris, France at the same time. If you enjoy history you will enjoy this book, if you are not into history this book is probably not for you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Over the top
Comment: I liked the author's story but I can't believe all the things that he assumes for what was happening in the Americas before 1492.

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