Reddit reviews 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Charles Mann's book 1491 is excellent and exactly on your topic.

1491 seems pretty alright, though /r/history can probably comment further

1491 by Charles Mann is a great place to start if you're interested in pre-Columbian America.

Read 1491 by Charles C. Mann. It's about civilization in the Americas before the influx of Westerners. It's meticulously well-documented, with lots of good notes for further reading / source checking. The writing is well-done -- it's academic information written for a popular audience, basically a history-book version of "A Brief History of Time". It will completely revolutionize your understanding of the incredible cultures and societies that existed before Europeans showed up.

Try 1491 by Charles Mann.

You should check out the book 1491, which details the reality of the world the North American civilizations live in. It's a very good book, and shows that it wasn't all eco-paradise and peace-pipes before the Europeans showed up.

You are so very, very wrong about the conditions in the Americas before the European contact. You ought to read this so you have some idea what modern scholarship knows about the pre-Columbian Americas: http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/140004006X

I haven't actually read it yet, only excerpts, but I have the book 1491:New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus coming in the mail. It's about America before the Europeans came, and how vastly numerous and sophisticated Native Americans were.

1491 by Charles Mann. Then follow that up with 1493. I guarantee you will not be disappointed!

Try the book "1491" -- it's fascinating and goes into detail about a lot of mesoamerican societies. I enjoyed it a lot.

What I can't tell you is whether it's accurate. Like rocket trajectories for Wernher Von Braun in Tom Lehrer's famous song, that's not my department.

relevant

Here's some books you might like:

1491 by Charles C Mann.

The Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.

No, I meant 1491 (Good look, though. It has been a while since 2nd grade), and I don't know where you got a judgement from me on how colonialism affected Africa in the long run. The fact that Europeans were able to colonize Africa because of overwhelming 'might' is my point.

edit: also, I knew using the word primitive would make me catch flak, which is why I tried to soften it with focused definition, but I'll use your phrase from now on. It sounds nicer, anyways.

Cool deal. Good to come across someone who read a lot of history. Try reading 1491 by Charles C Mann Here

It is a very good read.

Damn straight. Reference here.

And founded an empire which was - for nearly 700 years - the foremost champion of religious tolerance, technological advancement and social diversity. Compare to Christopher Columbus, who wanted to found a theocratic empire based on slavery (and New Spain was far, far worse than anything Mohammed inflicted), so he could use New World gold to feed the endless war against the Muslim world. Also, the man responsible for one of the greatest losses of human life and biodiversity the world has ever seen.

That said, I've really got no truck with Columbus, as he was a product of his immensely barbaric times.

Popular "argument"???

I meant this book which seems (to my mind anyway) to contain more than simply an "argument"... more like a paradigm shifting change in the way the Pre-Columbian civilizations existed.

To my mind when Europeans jokingly assert that America doesn't really have a "history" -- I believe they are quite frankly, "full of it", because a lot of the "history" of Europe is either large gaping holes (how little we REALLY know of Carthage, or of the Phoenician, Celtic or Germanic histories), or reconstructed "faux" history, with only a superficial "glossy coating" regarding wars and certain ruling family histories.

A very large part of the "American" attitude, psyche, and even "philosophy" of individualism if you will, seems to have been adopted by the immigrants from the native tribes. (Especially if one goes digging into the writings of people like Franklin, Cadwallader Colden, etc.)

I have yet to read it, but the book 1491 was written to explore such questions. Anyone who had read it, please comment on its content.

Amazon and local libraries have free ebooks, buddy.

New ones, too. Just read 1491 for free through the Seattle Public Library.

http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/140004006X

A great read about Cahokia and other relatively recent (and still controversial) findings: 1491

If you're looking for some more in depth reading on the subject, I suggest Guns, Germs and Steel or 1491.

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I do remember from history classes in college that the Native Americans would raze down the trees for their agriculture. There's a book on this that I read years ago which goes into much more detail on how they shaped the land. After most of them died (remember, something like 90% of them were killed, many before European colonization was in full swing), the forests starting coming back. It's hard for us now to fathom what New England look like before European settlement, since so much of their history is now lost.

I'm fairly well-reasoned, educated, and informed. OTOH I'm not particularly interested in "gaining points" or whatever; it's not of interest to me whether a discussion here "goes in my favor."

What we know -- or think we know -- about pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas is fragmentary and changing fast. By the same token, what Mormon folk-belief has held (e.g., that the BoM civilizations covered the North and South American continents) is also fragmented and changing fast. The BoM people are now thought to have been one (relatively small) group out of many (this isn't a change in doctrine, but something of a clarification of older folk-belief and tradition).

If you haven't read the book 1491, I highly recommend it. It has nothing to do with the BoM or LDS belief at all, but it does give a much different (and well-grounded) view of civilization in the Americas prior to the main presence of Europeans here.

https://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/140004006X

https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552

Read books if you're interested in history. Don't buy talking points of proven frauds like Ward Churchill the fake Indian and plagiarist.

Here is a good book that dispels your noble save Dances With Wolves illusions about what happened here before the arrival of Europeans: 1491

Give us a break with your p.c. revisionism. I'm part Native American. Not a big enough part to get hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for nothing--look into how tribes have made out with Indian gaming in places like my state, California. Also, your wrong when you claim there was a massive genocide to make room for the U.S.A. because as it so happens this was a sparsely populate landmass when various groups were arriving. Maybe you think that a few hundred thousand savage and violent illiterates should forever have been allowed to call the whole place their own, but that's not how it works.