Title: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Author: Charles C. Mann
Version: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
ISBN: 140004006X
Year Published: 2005
Pages: 480
List Price: $29.99
Description:
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A Groundbreaking Study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.
Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the
people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus's
landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago;
existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the
land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast
wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and
anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these and many
other long-held assumptions wrong.
In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new
generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques
came to previously unheard-of conclusions. Among them: In 1491 there
were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe.
Certain cities-such as Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital-were far greater
in population than any contemporary European city. Furthermore,
Tenochtitlan, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running
water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets. The
earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the
Egyptians built the great pyramids. Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico
developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal
Science recently described it as "man's first, and perhaps the
greatest, feat of genetic engineering." Amazonian Indians learned how
to farm the rain forest without destroying it-a process scientists are
studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge. Native
Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived
in a hemisphere already massively "landscaped" by human beings.
Mann sheds clarifying light on the methods used to arrive at these new
visions of the pre-Columbian Americas and how they have affected our
understanding of our history and our thinking about the environment.
His book is an exciting and learned account of scientific inquiry and
revelation.
FROM THE CRITICS
Alan Taylor - The Washington Post
… Mann's 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient
history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental
consequences of colonization.
Kevin Baker - The New York Times Book Review
Mann navigates adroitly through the controversies. He approaches each
in the best scientific tradition, carefully sifting the evidence, never
jumping to hasty conclusions, giving everyone a fair hearing—the
experts and the amateurs; the accounts of the Indians and their
conquerors. And rarely is he less than enthralling. A remarkably
engaging writer, he lucidly explains the significance of everything
from haplogroups to glottochronology to landraces. He offers amusing
asides to some of his adventures across the hemisphere during the
course of his research, but unlike so many contemporary journalists, he
never lets his personal experiences overwhelm his subject.
Publishers Weekly
This production is-as most nonfiction audios ought to be-a "reading" as
distinct from a "performance." Johnson renders this thoroughly
researched, well-written history of early North and South American
Indian populations in a strong, clear voice, with excellent intonation.
His diction is almost too perfect-one occasionally focuses on
pronunciation rather than content. Most of the book is written in
narrative form that sweeps listeners through an exciting rethinking of
all we ever learned about when so-called Indians first inhabited the
American continents and how they may have come here, about their
numbers, religions, cultures, inventions, social structures and their
relations to European invaders and settlers. When Mann relates the
internecine battles among schools of anthropologists and archeologists,
however, the listener might wish he had the book in hand for clarity.
It might be wise from the start to make a list of the numerous Indian
and European individuals and groupings. This audiobook is well worth
the trouble. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews,
June 20). (August) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Foreign Affairs
The boom in new scholarship on the Western Hemisphere before Columbus
is intelligently synthesized in 1491, the engrossing bestseller by the
able science popularizer Mann. Sifting adroitly through the
accumulating evidence and the academic disputes, Mann drives home these
arguments: the Americas may well have birthed the world's first complex
civilization (seizing that claim from Mesopotamia); in 1491 the
Americas were densely populated by a dazzling panoply of diverse
civilizations superior to 1491 Europe in many areas, including
technology, statecraft, and epic poetry; and Indians throughout the
Americas, far from living in a pristine, untouched ecology, found ways
to manage and improve their environments (that "low-hanging fruit" grew
in planted orchards). European viruses, more than guns or steel,
explain the utter demise of glorious empires and up to 100 million
natives. Mann softens his myth-bashing by underplaying the systematic
cultural genocide of the Counter Reformation conquistadors. With its
many enlightening comparisons to European achievements, 1491 should be
required reading in all high school and university world history
courses.
Library Journal
What were the Americas like before the arrival of Christopher Columbus
changed the native cultures of the Western Hemisphere forever? Mann, a
correspondent for Science and the Atlantic Monthly, provides a
fascinating, in-depth examination of this question, identifying
tantalizing clues and offering new conclusions from recently discovered
archaeological evidence. He explores three different but ultimately
related themes. First, the demographics of pre-contact Native American
societies are examined to demonstrate that populations in many parts of
the Americas were actually much larger than previously believed. (In
fact, in all likelihood, more people were living in the Americas,
pre-1492, than in Europe.) Next, Mann probes the probability that
native peoples inhabited the Americas much earlier than previously
thought. Finally, he examines the ecological impact that indigenous
groups had on their environments. Mann has done a superb job of
analyzing and distilling information, offering a balanced and
thoughtful perspective on each of his themes in engaging prose.
Including an extensive bibliography, this excellent archaeological
synthesis is highly recommended for anthropology and archaeology
collections in academic and large public libraries. [See Prepub Alert,
LJ 4/1/05.]-Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH
Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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