Lost Cities of North & Central America (Lost Cities Series) [Paperback]

David Hatcher Childress (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 590 pages
• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press (July 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932813097
• ISBN-13: 978-0932813091
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking., May 14, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Cities of North & Central America (Lost Cities Series) (Paperback)

This is a great book regardless of how outlandish some of the stories it contains are. The author's greatest strength is not in forming unique opinions about the subject but rather in bringing together a vast number of sources to show an America completely different than what we've been lead to believe.

The book just isn't about lost cities but also generally weird stuff throughout Central and North America. There is evidence of Asian contact with Central American cultures, pterodactyls in Arizona, Vikings in Oklahoma, Irish monks running all over the place, and those are the more believable stories. Atlantis or a gold city always seems to be around the corner, Jesus may have visited the New World, a master race is controlling the world from underground, the Egyptians had a colony in the Grand Canyon, and of course the government is covering all this up.

The book does have its problems. The editing is horrible. The narrative that strings the author's travels together is wooden and painful to read. Each chapter stands by itself, but this means that some background material is repeated, often word for word. Overall these are minor issues.

The book doesn't provide any answers but it does make a choice perfectly clear. You can either accept the traditional view that people wandered across a land bridge in Siberia to colonize the Americas and stayed relatively isolated and unadvanced until Europeans showed up in 1492 and wiped them out. Or you can read this book and see if there is evidence out there that suggests otherwise.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very reavealing book on unknown sites in North America, March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Cities of North & Central America (Lost Cities Series) (Paperback)

This was the first Childress book that I had ever read. It was very informative as to what is actually found in North and Central America. Being somewhat of a history and achaeology buff, my eyes were opened wide as to what can be found in our own backyards. The fact that the author includes his own everyday experiences while travelling makes the book more pleasant. I would reccomend this book to anyone thinking of driving across North America.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, regardless of factual errors., June 28, 2000

By 

Yuli Martov - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Cities of North & Central America (Lost Cities Series) (Paperback)

David H. Childress's Lost City series has been one of the most interesting collection of books I have read in a long time, however, I really don't know how accurate many of his theories are. Even many minor statements he makes, such as "Native Americans can not grow facial hair" are fallacies, I know an abundance of Native Americans, and they're facial hair rivals that of Che and Fidel. So when a guy gets facts as simple as these garbled, how much credibility can he possibly have when he starts rambling on about "Smithsoniangate", and "living dinosaurs".

I find these possibilites as intriuguing as the next guy, but exactly where is his proof. He cites some archival information from an Arizona newspaper as proof that in the Grand Canyon in the early 1900's researchers found a cave full of Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Egyptian artifacts, and the Smithsonian museum came in and barricaded the area to this day(sort of like Raiders of the Lost Ark). And he uses oral history as proof that there are living Pteradactyls in the forests of Arizona. Perhaps Childress is correct in these assertions, and the US gov't is suppressing evidence of his relatively outlandish claims, then again, perhaps he's just trying to exploit the gullibility of the American public. But judging from his appearances on various talk shows, my guess is that he honestly believes that the gov't is suppressing information on the esoteric subjects he discusses in his books, of course this doesn't neccessarily mean that he's correct in these claims. I suppose that Childress's writings are extremely interesting, whether they are complete fabrications or are truisms. Reading this book certainly won't make you a better person, but it will force you to question what the author is claiming(that the US gov't is involved in clandestine activities of a paranormal nature, and that there are living prehistoric creatures), and will almost definitely force you to ponder what the US gov't plans to accomplish by suppressing ancient history(from my perspective they recieve no incentive by suppressing info that would link the Egyptians with North America). If you have a relatively large amount of time on your hands, I would definitely recommend this book, it makes you question the "accepted" history of the North American continent, but it also frustrates the reader with the lack of viable evidence to support his outrageous suggestions.