Customer Reviews

Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America: The Lost Kingdoms of the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippians, and Anasazi

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's sad how few people know the history of their country. Civilizations lived here for thousands of years before 1492 and Columbus' "discovery." Joseph spends the the first seven chapters on the various moundbuilder cultures. Sadly, much of the remains of these peoples were destroyed by early settlers and development well into modern times. While archaeology has revealed reams about these worlds, many mysteries remain. Were the Adena influenced by Celts and/or Vikings? The Hopewell by the Japanese? The Mississippians by Mayans? Perhaps. Joseph details convincing cases for these cultures.

These are "controversial" claims because many scholars still don't want to believe that anyone could cross the oceans in ancient times. Even the discovery of a Viking settlement in Canada still left people unconvinced. Some people think that diffusion somehow undermines the sophistication of existing cultures. In 30,000 years, do you really think the Americas remained completely isolated from the rest of the world? Scholars need to return to old fashion fact-finding and go where ever the clues lead and stop these childish biases.

The final chapters of the book look into Mesoamerican influences in the Southwest. Here, in the deserts, American natives created sophisticated cultures. As in today's world, peoples rarely live in complete isolation from others. If they did, civilization would never advance. See also Mound Builders, The Rediscovery Of Lost America The Story of The Pre-Columbian Iron Age In America, The Founders of America and 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

Note to publisher: Why you tag this "new age" on the back of the book instead of "archaeology" or "ancient history" or "native american history" is beyond me. So now booksellers will place it on the crackpot shelf instead of the Native American shelf where it belongs.

This book is interesting but highly speculative. The author takes many liberties and makes dramatic assumptions. For example, at one point he says that a mound of North America is "indistinguishable" from those of mayan origin. In the next paragraph he says that "oh yeah, it is made of dirt instead of stone". It's poorly organized at points, using different timelines to describe spans of existence, different ways of explaining volume, and has a lot of factoids that are true but not relevant. I am still finishing the last chapter, and I learned a lot of useful facts, and believe he is onto something ... but I would like to see more of a scientific proof of what he says and less speculation. The book is lacking in photos that would be much more explanatory, and often simply uses photos of interpretive centers exhibits. If he is right, the traditional archaelogists studying north america really have missed alot! Kind of hard to fathom they would miss that much. Overall it seems lacking in academic and scientific rigor.

When I got this book on my kindle, I was expecting some interesting evidence and conclusions that would make me think more about prehistoric America. Even though I agree with the minority that America definitely had trans-oceanic contact with other nations before Columbus arrived, I was not convinced by Joseph's theories.

He argues that the Japanese and the Celts had a large part to play in the Adena and Hopewell cultures, but his conclusions were rather shaky and did not follow the evidence. He would go on for chapters on these different cultures and how they were advanced and unique, and then he would suddenly say "oh, it's Japanese culture." I think he's got his dates mixed up because I looked up the Celts, and their culture didn't appear until the sixth century BC, long after the Adena culture had been established. Joseph argues that the Mississippian culture was Mayan and that turned into the Aztec civilization, and his line of thinking was confusing and and didn't follow; I wasn't convinced with this theory. He also had a long discussion on a South American tribe that migrated north to form the Anasazi civilization, but I too wasn't convinced by his supposed evidence.

The book was not well-written and was confusing at times. Sometimes, he would go on and on about the evidence or about some random story about a tribe, and it was a long time before he would explain its relevance to the rest of the book.

I wasn't very impressed with this book. If you want a better-written book about prehistoric America, check out Huyghe's "Columbus Was Last."

Frank Joseph, much unlike academia, brings Ancient American history to life as never before in this well organized, thought-provoking work on the topic.

Mr. Joseph manages to tackle--head on--the big questions: Just were did the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian, and ancient southwest civilizations come from, and where ultimately did they go?

Though the "answers" might surprise you, the author's rationale will surely lessen the shock.

This is absolutely a MUST READ on a subject for which so precious little print currently exists.

This book brings together most of what I have studied on the subject all my life. My life long passion for the study of early people has led me to believe that early man has moved around far more than we have given him credit for. All evidence has pointed to the same results that are in this book. History, science, folk lore, etc. all point to the same conclusions. Only the "overly educated experts" have been indoctrinated otherwise. Their minds have been closed and sealed to the very obvious facts that are just about everywhere. This book takes its place alongside some of my favorites (out of the 10,000 that I passed in 1985). Refreshing!

I found this to be an absolutely fascinating book. It is interesting to read, full of information, and very enlightening. The one issue I did have with it that keeps it from getting a 5 star rating is that the author often does not explain how he gets the information he presents. For example he will mention that they know almost nothing about civilization "x" but then talk a bit about how the rulers stayed in charge. Interesting, but if we don't know anything about it, how does he know this? It may well be true but I would like more info as to back up. I also found the theory of the Japanese landing on the west coast and then leaving to go to Ohio a bit of a stretch. Have you ever been to California and Ohio? Have you ever tried to cross the rocky mountains? Seems likely more of them would have just stayed.

These comments aside I thought the book was excellent and well worth reading for anyone interested in Pre Columbus History.

I was not impressed with this book because I found it to be very poorly organized & much of its' content very speculative. However, that was only the tip of the iceberg. I usually Google the author of any book Im going to buy & try to find out about the author before I buy the book. Unfortunately, I did not do so with Mr. Joesph. I simply bought the book after looking it over because I thought it would be a good read & I love history.
When I read about Mr. Joesph's life & the things he has done, I was repulsed & disgusted! I will never again spend my hard earned money on anything he writes. Even if he was an excellent writer & historian (which in my opinion he is not), I do not want to read anything written by a person who has done the things he has done, & who seems to outwardly show no remorse.
Mr. Joesphs' book is now in the place it should be......my trash can. Look him up & read about him. Then you make your own informed decision.

Well written book loaded with information that is very interesting. A must read for those interested in the past.

Purchased as a gift. Very happy with packaging and delivery of product. Recipient very pleased with book. Good experience in general. Thanks!