Customer Reviews

Atlantis in Wisconsin: New Revelations About the Lost Sunken City

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Atlantis In Wisconsin by Frank Joseph is thoughtful and iconoclastic blend of metaphysics and archaeology, contemplating the possible former existence of the Atlantean civilization and a direct association with the area now known as the state of Wisconsin. From hints of Atlantean legend found in Native American folklore, to the mineralogical and archaeological mysteries hidden in Wisconsin's earth, Atlantis in Wisconsin offers an engaging and challenging hypothesis. Of particular note is a chronology described in a three page appendices called "A Rock Lake Time Line". Enhanced with copious notes, Atlantis In Wisconsin is provocative and thoroughly engaging reading. Also very highly recommended is Frank Joseph's earlier work iconoclastic work, Lost Pyramids Of Rock Lake: Wisconsin's Sunken Civilization.

The book is very interesting with a lot of very fine ideas. The writing itself is not very good and at times hard to follow.

This book suffers from many of the same faults as most treatments of supposedly "radical" new theories about archaeology. It relies on assertion rather than argument, and provides essentially no references for most of the claims that are made. It is riddled with factual errors (like the idea that the production and use of bronze ended with the Iron Age, which is simple untrue). The author doesn't bother to refute any of the interpretations carefully constructed from decades of archaeological research in the area. Instead, he simply says he doesn't believe them. A good example is the presence of pig tusks-- what is more believable, that pigs accompanied European explorers and shed their tusks on occasion, or that Atlanteans who mysterious arrived in North America brought them there? Despite the fact that there is no proof that Atlantis was a real place, that, even if it was, there were survivors of its destruction, that they would have been capable of traveling to North America, that they would have ended up in Wisconsin, that the local inhabitants would have happily accepted them, and that they would have established a thriving culture, Joseph find this far more credible than pigs being brought by historically well-established explorers. This isn't argument, it's simple assertion. The same strategy is used for natural phenomena that the author has decided are humanly constructed. He doesn't explain why they can't be natural, provide any evidence that they aren't natural, or any evidence that they are in fact artificial. He simply states that he thinks they are. It's also frustrating that references are rarely given for the assertions that the author makes. If readers want to find out where the information came from, they are out of luck. We are rarely told. What references are provided are almost all well out of date. One wouldn't use references about biological or chemical knowledge from sources 30 or more years old, and yet this is done frequently in this book. Sources from the early 20th century are uncritically used, as though there has been research in archaeology since then. In short, the book is riddled with incorrect information, it is internally inconsistent, the author doesn't explain why his interpretation is based on better evidence than what it wishes to replace, and the references that are used are mostly out of date. Don't bother with this book if you are really interested in archaeology and how it is used to interpret the past.

If you don't believe the real evidence presented in this book, then you don't have a logical and accepting mind.