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Charles C Mann

Ancient Americans: Rewriting the History of the New World Hardcover – 7 Nov. 2005

by Charles C Mann (Author)

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Up until very recently it was believed that in 1491, the year before Columbus landed, the Americas, one-third of the earth's surface, were a near-pristine wilderness inhabited by small, roaming bands of indigenous peoples. Then, the story went, they encountered European society, their world was turned upside down and they entered history. But recently unexpected discoveries have dramatically changed our understanding of Indian Life. Many scholars now argue that the Indians were much more numerous than previously believed, that they were in the Americas for far longer, and that they had far more ecological impact on the land. This knowledge has enormous implications for today's environmental disputes, yet little has filtered into textbooks, and even less into public awareness. Charles Mann brings together all of the latest research, and the results of his own travels throughout North and South America, to provide a new, fascinating and iconoclastic account of the Americas before Columbus.

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Granta Books
Publication date

7 Nov. 2005
ISBN-10

1862076170
ISBN-13

978-1862076174
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Product description

Review

âDevastatingly fascinating read...written compellingly, sometimes movingly, and in a prose that matches the drama of the subject with readabilityâ -- Scotland on Sunday

âThis fascinating volume opens a new vision of North and South America before the advent of Europeans in 1492â -- Good Book Guide

Synopsis

Up until very recently it was believed that in 1491, the year before Columbus landed, the Americas, one-third of the earth's surface, were a near-pristine wilderness inhabited by small, roaming bands of indigenous peoples. Then, the story went, they encountered European society, their world was turned upside down and they entered history. But recently unexpected discoveries have dramatically changed our understanding of Indian Life. Many scholars now argue that the Indians were much more numerous than previously believed, that they were in the Americas for far longer, and that they had far more ecological impact on the land. This knowledge has enormous implications for today's environmental disputes, yet little has filtered into textbooks, and even less into public awareness. Charles Mann brings together all of the latest research, and the results of his own travels throughout North and South America, to provide a new, fascinating and iconoclastic account of the Americas before Columbus.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Granta Books; First British Edition (7 Nov. 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1862076170
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1862076174

Best Sellers Rank: 2,875,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2,027 in Native American Demographic Studies
- 3,911 in History of Native Americans
- 14,019 in Medieval History

Customer reviews:
5 ratings

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I. Hohler

Fascinating rewrite

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 June 2009

Verified Purchase

This book is well worth reading for a number of reasons: subject, information, and style. A little too much repetition for my taste, but I do like my information densely packed. Most readers are unlikely to agree with me. I especially enjoyed reading about the first hand experiences of early travellers/settlers and the evidence for shaping of the landscape and flora. To a non-American the sensitivity issues seem out of proportion, but I guess we have our own skeletons in the closet. The disagreements and cold fronts between scientists are familiar ground.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2020

Verified Purchase

Latin America the best part.

Helpful

T. O. R. GREEN

A brilliant work of popular history and scholarship

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2006

This is a brilliant book. Charles C. Mann has taken an enormous range of information and the latest scholarship in archaeology, genetics, history and anthropology and turned it into a fascinating and highly readable history of Amerindians before 1491.

It is impossible here fully to do justice to the scope of the book, but what makes it so important is that it corrects a whole load of fallacies about the ancient Americans.

You thought that Amerindians crossed the Bering Straits 13,000 years ago? Wrong! It seems as though they may have been crossing over 40,000 years ago!

You thought that Amerindians had not invented the wheel? Wrong! The Maya had them on toys.

You thought that Amerindians were defeated because of technological superiority of the Spaniards? Wrong! It was just a question of disease.

And so it goes on! The Amazon basin's ecosystems were created in part by the skills of the Amerindians. The Amazonian societies were so complex that middens with tens of millions of pieces of pottery have been located deep in the jungle. The great herds of bison and birds found in North America were not testament to some primeval paradise but to an ecosystem out of balance after the North American Indians had been decimated by disease.

The list of new discoveries for the general reader in this book is amazing. It blows apart any vague preconceptions you may have about America before 1491, and introduces this strange and distant place to us in prose which is brilliantly accessible and authoritative.

I should add, I am not a friend of Charles Mann! I just loved this book. I also think it's a terrible shame that such a crucial, important book is languishing in the sales lists when so much dross does better. Buy it, and then buy it for all your relations as I have done!

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Ancient Americans: Rewriting the History of the New World Hardcover – 7 Nov. 2005

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