I bought this because my teenage grandson read it and was telling me about it and I wanted to be able to discuss it with him. I haven't finished it yet but Amazon invited me to review it and I can pretty well see where it is going, so here goes:
It is fanciful at best. On content I would give it one star. However, it is fairly readable so I have it a second star for that. At least it is readable if you don't get too distracted by Mr. Hancock's leaps of logic and making of factual statements with no support or with pseudo scientific support. So if you are reading it for entertainment only and are scientifically and historically literate enough to recognize horse pooh when you step in it, you might find it interesting. As science or as history, however, it is worthless or worse than worthless. For example:
1. The book is replete with footnotes. However, if you look at the works cited, they all seem to be secondary sources of the same ilk as Mr. Hancock's work. That is, they are not scholarly works or even popularized versions of mainstream scholarship: they are books by other writers peddling fantastic theories. He even cites to Immanuel Velikovsky for heaven's sake. If there is a purported body of "scientific theory" of the 20th century that has been more thoroughly discredited than Velikovsky, I would be hard pressed to imagine what it might be.
2. The world is full of coincidences. Occasionally a coincidence in the subject matter of archaeology, evolutionary biology, or some other historical science is theoretically meaningful. Often it is just a coincidence. It takes (1) judgement based on experience and training in the relevant field and (2) evidence; to tell the difference. Mr. Hancock has neither; but every coincidence is meaningful to him. Some artifact of pre-Inca archaeology is similar to another artifact of pre-Sumerian archaeology? Voila! The ancestors of the Sumerians and the ancestors of the Quechuans must have been in contact with each other!! Maybe even they were parts of the same civilization!! Which must have been incredibly advanced to have left descendants in both Peru and Mesopotamia!!
Or maybe not, but that does not slow Mr. Hancock down.
3. And there is a map (a bonafide one) of the world that was produced by an Ottoman admiral in Constantinople in 1513. It is called the Piri Reis Map. It shows a land mass in the south Atlantic that has no discernable similarity to the shape of Antarctica as we know it but which Hancock asserts is a good match for what Antarctica would look like if it were ice free. He bases that on a (supposed) letter to a Professor Charles Hapgood (from whom Mr. Hancock borrows wholesale and who seems to have had a bit of a penchant for crackpot ideas) from a Lt. Colonel of the US Air Force in 1960. The Colonel is identified as an officer in a reconnaisance squadron assigned to an airbase in Massachusetts. The Colonel is quoted as saying that the land mass on the Piri Reis map shows "remarkable similarity" to what the shape of the coastline of Antarctica is under the icecap based on a British-Swedish study in 1949.
Okay, one might say. So what? The Piri Reis map (of which only a fragment is extant, btw) is not exactly a model of accuracy in most ways. It fairly plausibly shows far-Western Europe, West Africa and the coast of Brazil. If you compare it with a modern map, you can see those outlines easily but everything else that it shows is little more than random squiggles and rough guesses. And anyone who has looked at a few antique maps will know that ancient mapmakers had a penchant for filling in the blank areas about which they had no information with fanciful things. So the good Ottoman Admiral filled in his map with a hypothetical land mass and at least in the opinion of one otherwise obscure Air Force officer from 60 years ago, hit it lucky and filled in the blank space with something that might look like the coast of Antarctica would look like (there are a number of reasons for being skeptical of the Colonel's conclusion starting with but not ending with the actual existence of such a letter from such a colonel) if it were ice free. An interesting but not very profound coincidence if that is all there is to note. (there is not actually even that much to note, but that is another matter).
But for Mr. Hancock this is a eureka! moment. It is obvious to him that the Piri Reis map must be based on older sources that were made when Antarctica or at least its coast was ICE FREE! He then disregards the mountain of geological evidence and professional opinion that Antarctica's ice cap has been in place for a lot longer than civilization has been around as "the conventional wisdom." He then observes that map-making is a sophisticated civilizational skill. So, Voila! whenever it may have been that the Antarctic ice sheet had retreated from the shores of the continent, there must have been a technically competent civilization in existence at the same time! Because how else could the Admiral's source maps have shown the ice free coast so accurately?
And I could go on, but enough is enough; suffice it to say that the foregoing is Mr. Hancock's standard procedure. Find an anomaly or a coincidence, hypothesize an explanation for it that disregards accepted scholarship as well as common sense and build castles in the air from there. Entertaining? For some. Science? No, not even close. Historically plausible? Not on your life. Factual? Not remotely.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
|
Price
|
New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$0.00
|
Free with your Audible trial | |
|
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$11.43 | — |
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Paperback$89.74FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Thursday, Sep 16Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Nowun in Partikular
One of the most important reads of my life!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2018Verified Purchase
Bob Lock
Just as relevant today as when it was first published in 1995
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2019Verified Purchase
rotay44
Lost civilisation? Here's the proof
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2017Verified Purchase
Cameron J
Book wasn’t for me, interesting man though
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2021Verified Purchase
Fengirl
Misled by memory
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2018Verified Purchase
More items to explore
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
John M. AllegroPaperback$24.33FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Thursday, Sep 16
