The Day Before America [Paperback]

William MacLeish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 1995

History and prehistory come alive in this extraordinary account of America as it was before it got its name. William H. MacLeish paints a heartrending portrait of the lush, miraculous New World on the eve of the Encounter - the arrival of the first Europeans, after which nothing was the same. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, geologists, and other academic experts, MacLeish roams over 18,000 years of the continent's history, exploring the roles of climate and human activity in preparing the world that we have inherited. The Day Before America is studded with fascinating information on the awesome transformations of the ice age (and the inevitability of its return), on the ecological effects of hunting and early agriculture, and on the astonishing variety of "native" civilizations. The book is informed by a deep commitment to the wonder and sanctity of the natural world, and at bottom, it is a statement of belief in an unsentimental environmentalism -- an effort to see our world i

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a beautifully written meditation, Eco contributing editor MacLeish charts the ecological devastation and societal upheaval wrought by Spanish, French, English and Dutch colonizers of the New World. Drawing on interviews with ecologists, archeologists, prehistorians and anthropologists, as well as his own travels, he lyrically evokes the lush pre-Columbian Americas, where herds of caribou, mammoths and camels roamed in the late Pleistocene as glaciers melted. He also delineates a wide diversity of native cultures, such as the Calusa whale-hunters of the Pacific Northwest, the peoples who built huge burial mounds from Alabama to Ohio arund A.D. 1000, and the Chaco Canyon, N.M. housing-complex dwellers circa A.D. 500. MacLeish closes his highly personal essay with reflections on the destructive impact of contemporary Americans' high-consumption lifestyle. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A storyteller with a penchant for history, MacLeish weaves a spellbinding tale about human life and environmental change in North America north of Mexico after about 15,000 B.C. Drawing on the work of archaeologists, paleobiologists, and the comments of Native Americans, he synthesizes what is known about the first Americans and their cultural evolution. In this personal odyssey, MacLeish addresses questions of human ecology, population growth, climate change, warfare, cultural morality, domestication origins, and a host of other issues of contemporary social and public policy. This unique and engaging essay will be of interest to the general reader.
William S. Dancey, Ohio State Univ., Columbus
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 277 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; F edition (September 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395740142
• ISBN-13: 978-0395740149
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,474,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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