Mann offers a groundbreaking study that radically alters readers' understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.
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.
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.
- Produktdetails
- Vintage
- Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Erscheinungstermin: 1. Januar 1900
- Englisch
- Abmessung: 203mm x 131mm x 32mm
- Gewicht: 588g
- ISBN-13: 9781400032051
- ISBN-10: 1400032059
- Artikelnr.: 21702749
List of Maps
Preface
INTRODUCTION / Holmberg s Mistake
1. A View from Above
PART ONE / Numbers from Nowhere?
2. Why Billington Survived
3. In the Land of Four Quarters
4. Frequently Asked Questions
PART TWO / Very Old Bones
5. Pleistocene Wars
6. Cotton (or Anchovies) and Maize (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part I)
7. Writing, Wheels, and Bucket Brigades (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part II)
PART THREE / Landscape with Figures
8. Made in America
9. Amazonia
10. The Artificial Wilderness
11. The Great Law of Peace
Appendixes
A. Loaded Words
B. Talking Knots
C. The Syphilis Exception
D. Calendar Math
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
INTRODUCTION / Holmberg s Mistake
1. A View from Above
PART ONE / Numbers from Nowhere?
2. Why Billington Survived
3. In the Land of Four Quarters
4. Frequently Asked Questions
PART TWO / Very Old Bones
5. Pleistocene Wars
6. Cotton (or Anchovies) and Maize (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part I)
7. Writing, Wheels, and Bucket Brigades (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part II)
PART THREE / Landscape with Figures
8. Made in America
9. Amazonia
10. The Artificial Wilderness
11. The Great Law of Peace
Appendixes
A. Loaded Words
B. Talking Knots
C. The Syphilis Exception
D. Calendar Math
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A journalistic masterpiece.
The New York Review of Books
Marvelous. . . . A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. . . . A remarkably engaging writer.
The New York Times Book Review
Fascinating. . . . A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.
The Boston Globe
A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit. . . . An exhilarating shift in perspective. . . . 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story. . . . 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.
The Washington Post Book World
Engagingly written and utterly absorbing. . . . Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.
The Miami Herald
Provocative. . . . A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.
San Francisco Chronicle
Marvelous. . . . A revelation. . . . Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.
The New York Sun
Monumental. . . . Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.
Salon
Concise and brilliantly entertaining. . . . Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.
Los Angeles Times
The New York Review of Books
Marvelous. . . . A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. . . . A remarkably engaging writer.
The New York Times Book Review
Fascinating. . . . A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.
The Boston Globe
A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit. . . . An exhilarating shift in perspective. . . . 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story. . . . 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.
The Washington Post Book World
Engagingly written and utterly absorbing. . . . Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.
The Miami Herald
Provocative. . . . A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.
San Francisco Chronicle
Marvelous. . . . A revelation. . . . Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.
The New York Sun
Monumental. . . . Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.
Salon
Concise and brilliantly entertaining. . . . Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.
Los Angeles Times
A journalistic masterpiece.
The New York Review of Books
Marvelous. . . . A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. . . . A remarkably engaging writer.
The New York Times Book Review
Fascinating. . . . A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.
The Boston Globe
A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit. . . . An exhilarating shift in perspective. . . . 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story. . . . 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.
The Washington Post Book World
Engagingly written and utterly absorbing. . . . Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.
The Miami Herald
Provocative. . . . A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.
San Francisco Chronicle
Marvelous. . . . A revelation. . . . Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.
The New York Sun
Monumental. . . . Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.
Salon
Concise and brilliantly entertaining. . . . Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.
Los Angeles Times
The New York Review of Books
Marvelous. . . . A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. . . . A remarkably engaging writer.
The New York Times Book Review
Fascinating. . . . A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.
The Boston Globe
A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit. . . . An exhilarating shift in perspective. . . . 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story. . . . 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.
The Washington Post Book World
Engagingly written and utterly absorbing. . . . Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.
The Miami Herald
Provocative. . . . A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.
San Francisco Chronicle
Marvelous. . . . A revelation. . . . Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.
The New York Sun
Monumental. . . . Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.
Salon
Concise and brilliantly entertaining. . . . Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.
Los Angeles Times