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Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization

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There was a thriving and highly sophisticated civilization in North America long before europeans arrived. Astonishingly, this fact has slowly become mainstream only very recently. Evidence of this civilization presents itself everywhere in the form of earthen architecture, or mounds, scattered throughout North America. Some of these mounds were tufts of earth that easily fell to the plow. Others rose to awe-inspiring monumental heights. And these mounds weren't mere transitory stations for nomads. They provided the centers of massive metropolises that supported thousands of people. So these mounds represent more than piles of dirt (as some may want to blithely excuse them); they represent the earliest known North American Cities. Most mainstream North American history has ignored these structures and the societies that inhabited them. And many of the mounds have fallen prey to urban development projects and "progress". Nearly 90% of the structures recorded by early european settlers have completely disappeared.

Roger Kennedy takes on this hefty subject in this book written in 1994. The title is "Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization" but the book contains far more information than that. The title actually misleads quite a bit. And the book's argument doesn't present itself in a straightforward linear manner, either. It takes considerable effort, and a large vocabulary, to glean the book's main purpose and salient points. Regardless, this book still presents a good overview for the subject of ancient america because that history gets interwoven with early european-american history.

Following an introductory chapter that discusses some of the greatest monuments of pre-european North American civilization (such as the 5000 year old Watson's Brake, the 3000 year old Poverty Point, the relatively recent metropolis of Cahokia, and the massive society that existed in the fertile Ohio and Mississippi river valleys), the book moves directly into the views of eminent europeans such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the overwhelming structural evidence of the civilization that preceded them in North America. Those interested in mounds and "hidden cities" might lose interest here. From this point on earthen architure only appears here and there interspersed by numerous digressions on the various people who witnessed the mounds from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Those interested in general history will find much to savor here, but the book remains difficult to follow nonetheless. In the end, the book examines more of european prejudice against the people (collectively referred to as "Hopewell" and "Adena") who supposedly made the mounds than the mounds and cities themselves.

One of the main faults of the book is that it takes on too much in a mere three-hundred pages. Not only does it discuss the lost cities of North America, but it attempts to examine all of the following: the lives of various people (mostly early european settlers) in relation to earthen architecture; the attitudes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, and others on the subject of slavery; the views of the same people towards Native Americans contemporaneous to their time; the followers of each "school" of thought: the Gallatins and the Jeffersonians; the history and purpose of George Washington's hereditary society called "The Cincinatti"; the dichotomy in Thomas Jefferson's writings and actions concerning slavery (Kennedy wrote an entire book on this subject called "Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause"); brief biographies of the early archeologists that assisted Jefferson in the compilation of "the first Indian museum" at Monticello; Jefferson's construction of Monticello and the mound-based design of his Poplar Forest estate; a history of seventeenth to nineteenth century european prejudice (that includes the Mexican War); the attempts of europeans to "explain away" the mounds as mere trifles of "the savage mind"; and an exploratory analysis of the purpose begind the mounds. All of that (and more) in three-hundred pages. Of course it all relates, but the text meanders to such a degree that the connections easily get lost and the associations between transitions from episode to episode blur somewhat after three or four chapters.

Regardless of its difficulties, the book offers up a treasure trove of information for those willing to undertake the effort. The most poignant point it makes concerns the fragility of civilizations. There exists evidence of a massive North American die off sometime in the sixteenth century. Approximately eighty percent of the population succumbed to some disaster (disease, resource depletion, social upheaval, climate change - no one knows for sure). Much of the preceding civilzation disappeared before europeans arrived en masse. They subsequently abandoned the grand monuments built by their ancestors. And these same people (says the evidence) had a sophisticated grasp of astronomy, mathematics (geometry), and argriculture. They lived off the land the best way they knew how, but their civilization still collapsed. Kennedy suggests that there is a lesson in this for all civilizations, and that we ignore the ancient and medieval history of North America at our peril.

So take up this book with caution. It contains loads of useful and fascinating information. But that information only comes with work. Readers will learn not only about "hidden cities" but about some of the foundations of the settlement that ultimately became the United States of America.

You will read this book and you will ask "Why don't I know this? Why don't I know that there were sophisticated civilizations comparable to the Aztecs or Mayans in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys before the coming of Columbus? Why don't I know that many large Midwestern cities were built on the ruins of Indian cities? Why are the monuments of these civilizations to this day being torn down to make room for parking lots and golf courses?" The book tries to answer these questions, and points to an amazing act of collective amnesia that was necessary to justify the taking of the American continent from the descendants of these civilizations. In the course of tracing this willed ignorance, Kennedy provides great insight into the thinking and characters of some of America's first leaders--this book greatly changed the way I think about Jefferson, and actually improved my estimation of Washington. This book is an exciting read. It uncovers a lost civilization, as fascinating as Atlantis--only it's real, and it's in our own backyard.

In reference to the review below (honestly, just an ignorant rant), the full title of this book is HIDDEN CITIES : THE DISCOVERY AND LOSS OF ANCIENT NORTH AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS and the book makes no promise, starting right there on the cover, to be an archeology book on the Mound-builder civilizations. In fact, go try to find a good archeology book on these lost civilizations. I dare you. The operative word here is "good" (I've reviewed one entry that was written at a 12-year-old level, was full of juvenile speculation, and truly deserved one star).

This is a phenomenal, well-written, meticulously researched book that details the history of a non-history--ignorance that is present till this day. While I'm steeped in acquaintances who allege they know every little dribble about "Native Americans," few have any knowledge whatsoever of the civilizations of North America that existed right up to the earliest European discoveries. Dawning awareness of these recently vanished civilizations influenced early government policies, got a lot of significant people thinking about who these "savages" they were encountering truly were, and forced others to ask hard questions about history. This book covers this epiphany brilliantly. This is important--essential even--material for any understanding of the relationship of Native Americans and European settlers. And it's out of print!

Honestly, I don't think any of this suits the current white intellectual romanticized notions of tribal peoples in North America very well and that's why so little interest has been shown in the Mound-builders. These guys worked metal, lived in cities, had complex governments, and possibly were the prime shakers and movers on this continent which makes the tribal people we love so well something of remnants, or even a side-show. Their soldiers even wore metal body armor--hardly the happy image we want and need of natives living in harmony with nature. It perhaps even explains the dignity and sophistication of many of the Eastern Native Americans (rhetorical skills alone were alleged to be phenomenal). It makes sense out of a Tecumseh who's Big Picture view never seemed to be that of a hunter/gatherer.

I've tried to research the Mound-builders and the best info I've come across was in 100-year-old editions of Scientific American. This was big news among archaeologists in 1890 and Sci-Am published mountains of illustrations of sophisticated Mound-builder artifacts. One sees these and immediately senses distant linkages to Aztec culture. Amazing that one has to dig through musty old magazines to see these!

Native American studies has become so completely politicized and romanticized in the last decades that truth and knowledge aren't even issues any more. Awareness of the existence of the Mound-builders assists no modern agenda; it's inconvenient stuff in fact, much as awareness of the complex dynamics of African culture(s)during the slave-trading years muddies the much-loved victim/oppressor duality. Politically correct thinking, which has always had a strongly adolescent cast, requires its "victims" to utterly helpless, kind-hearted, and blameless angels and its "oppressors" to be evil, brutal, uncaring, demons.

Sadly, a lot of older, and truly excellent, work on the native people of this continent is lost (like this book now) or derided. Most young people today can even imagine that someone 50 or 75 years ago could have written anything about other cultures that wasn't horrid. Heck, I know a graduate of one of the best women's schools in the country who recently was stunned to learn that a white male nearly 100 years ago (Woodrow Wilson)was actually pushing for the creation of an international organization to promote world peace! I assume she thinks that Eleanor Roosevelt started the UN. We're going to pay hard someday for all this institutionalized ignorance.

This was the first (and perhaps only book) to discuss the discoveries of mounds that are older than the acclaimed Poverty Point. He discusses Watson Brake and Frenchman's Bend which are over 5,000 years old.

An amazing book about a lost era of American history. Probably one of the best books written on the Mound Builders. While very well documented and footnoted, the book could use more illustrations and maps. Of course to call them "Mound Builders" is not entirely accurate, as they built more than mounds. Pyramids, platforms, circles, squares, cones, octagons, and fortresses. Whoever these mysterious people were, they had a great knowledge of astronomy and geometry to construct what they did, from the Ohio valley to Florida. Many of the sites are lost to time, but there are state parks that do preserve these ancient works. Here we have a lost civilization as great as the Maya--right here in North America!

Here we have yet another piece of history that's been ritually ignored by the arbiters of society and which desperately needs to be taught in American history classes. People nowadays know little about history anyway, but the material in Kennedy's book is one of the first lessons they should learn (One of the central themes of his book--the denial of marginalized people's beliefs and achievements--is also found in Howard Zinn's classic, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES). While I agree that he could have gone deeper into the actual culture and practices of the people who built Cahokia, Poverty Point, Moundville, and Etowah, he did a first-class job of rendering the conflicts at the highest level over whether we were a solely European (Anglo-Saxon) or multicultural civilization. I sincerely hope that at this point we've decided to choose the latter.

If you want to read about politics, but a book on politics. If you want tread about hidden cities/ mound builders buy another book. Too much political wandering throught the 1700's and 1800's and too little about hidden cities.