Customer Reviews

India Once Ruled the Americas!

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Gene Matlock has done it again. He is one of the few modern historian who is not afraid to speak the truth and keeps revealing ancient secrets of India through his amazing findings. His views runs parallel with several historians and scholars such as Dr. David Frawley, Stephen Knapp, George Feuerstein, Godfrey Higgins, Mark Kenoyer to name a few. This is an excellent linguistic approach by Matlock. I first saw Gene's articles at viewzone.com and since then he has opened new doors for me to Indian civilization. Most people try to discredit him but I would request you not to listen to any, but instead find the truth yourself. THIS BOOK IS WORTH EVERY PENNY and I guarantee you will be surpised by the facts presented in this book. I have no doubt Gene's next book will be another Gem!

Gene Matlock's book presents a hyper-diffusionist account of how Hindu culture/religion and many features of the Sanskrit language, originally found in Siberia and later in India, allegedly spread from the latter in an early diaspora to groups such as the Biblical Israelites, early Europeans and Amerindians. This, he says, has been obscured by subsequent degeneration in India and the refusal of mainstream scholars to face the evidence.

However, he himself produces little or no solid evidence. Instead he simply invites his readers to see repeated parallels between myths/legends/popular historical ideas involving India and their equivalents elsewhere. He suggests that archaeological and other evidence supports his views, but it is far from clear that this is so. In places Matlock makes wild claims, eg that ancient Indians used powered aircraft. He quotes various Indian and pro-Hindu sources in his support, but most of them are of low credibility.

However, much of his 'evidence' involves an 18th Century approach to historical linguistics. Matlock identifies unsystematic, superficial similarities between Sanskrit/Indic, Hebrew and Amerindian languages. He concludes that Amerindian and other non-Indian languages derive largely from Sanskrit or Kashmiri. But conclusions like this simply cannot be supported with loose evidence of the kind used (as 200 years of scholarship has made plain). Matlock does not even seem to realise that the grammars and phonologies of Indic and Amerindian languages are completely different in type.

And he oversimplifies the debate on Amerindian origins! He contrasts his ideas and a common traditional Amerindian view (ie, the Amerindians were created where they now live). Fringe archaeologists like Goodman and activists like Deloria have supported such ideas against mainstream scientific findings, and it is easy for Matlock to make them appear less plausible than his own views. But he ignores the mainstream views themselves, ie, there was indeed 'diffusion' from the Old World to the New, but at a much earlier date than he proposes and mainly or entirely by land via Beringia (not by ocean-borne expeditions). In addition, it is not clear why Matlock places so much more reliance on traditional narratives if they come from India rather than from the Americas!

Matlock's exaggerated view of his own importance is displayed in a declaration on the fly-leaf of this book. He warns readers, rather bombastically, that the book will 'destroy' their cherished beliefs and pet theories. It will have no such effect on a well-informed reader, of course. But it might mislead untrained readers - and this gives me my only real reason for bothering to review it.

I urge readers not to buy this book (unless it is very cheap, second-hand). But readers who know enough linguistics may at least have a good laugh.