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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Paperback – October 10, 2006

by Charles C. Mann (Author)

1,210 customer reviews

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In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A journalistic masterpiece.”
—The New York Review of Books

“Marvelous. . . . A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. . . . A remarkably engaging writer.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating. . . . A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.”
—The Boston Globe

“A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit. . . . An exhilarating shift in perspective. . . . 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story. . . . 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental consequences of colonization.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“Engagingly written and utterly absorbing. . . . Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.”
—The Miami Herald

“Provocative. . . . A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Marvelous. . . . A revelation. . . . Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.”
—The New York Sun

“Monumental. . . . Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.”
—Salon

“Concise and brilliantly entertaining. . . . Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.”
—Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Charles C. Mann, a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has written for Fortune, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, as well as for the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. His 1491 won the National Academies Communication Award for the best book of the year. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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Product details

Paperback: 541 pages
Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st edition (October 10, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781400032051
ISBN-13: 978-1400032051
ASIN: 1400032059
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 1,210 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Ecology
- #11 in Books > History > Americas > Native American
- #15 in Books > Science & Math > Environment

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Worthwhile and interesting; corrects many falsehoods learned in school

January 30, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

“1491” is Charles Mann’s synthesis of much of what is known today about Native Americans. I learned much from this book. It corrects the falsehoods that I learned in school – that the Native Americans crossed the Bering Strait about 10 to 15 million years ago, that they numbered in the low millions, and most importantly that they did not create significant institutions or have a transformative influence on the environment. The book is well-written and enjoyable to read from cover to cover, an interesting mix of journalism, travel writing, archaeology and history. I found the appendices about the Mayan calendar and the syphilis debate to be informative. I will mention that I enjoyed Mann’s companion book “1493” more than this one; that book focuses specifically on the Columbian Exchange and the new globalized world that followed Columbus’s discovery of the Americas. Each book is independent and covers a different topic and they do not need to be read sequentially. Both books are worthwhile and interesting.

22 people found this helpful

Comment

Lynne C. Gonzalez

1491, a non-fiction blockbuster...

October 25, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I'm only 70 percent of the way through this book, but I am totally captivated. The information is so dense and stereotype-busting thaI have to put the book down every now and then and think about what I've just read. It's that groundbreaking, especially when it spells out how the Amazonians actually created the ground they walked, planted and lived on. Try to put that in your head! You'll find out how they planted more food than they could have ever eaten, although they had no farms. The most amazing thing I have discovered is just how many organized civilizations there were before the Spaniards arrived, instead of the ignorant and unorganized, nomadic natives we have been led to believe existed. One of these Mesoamerican civilizations discovered the concept of Zero before the Arabs did, who were half a world away and thought to have been the first to have Zero in their mathematics, All of this information is based in recent and ongoing archeological discoveries of the last 200 years. I read 1493 a couple of years ago (twice) and was similarly overwhelmed by the amount of new information. When I began reading 1491, I thought there was no way that it could match the amount of dramatic historical information I found in 1493. I was wrong. This is also a book with so much information that I will have to read it a couple more times, at least, to absorb it all. Enjoy!

19 people found this helpful

Comment

Be prepared for some fascinating and surprising facts!

March 22, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

We read this in my book club and everyone loved it. It is really exciting to find out the recent discoveries in archeology and anthropology that this book outlines. Basically Mann provides information about three misconceptions that most people have about the Americas before Columbus. We learn there was a much larger population than previously believed. That population was much more advanced and modified the environment more than is commonly thought. In other words, the notion that the Americas were a pristine wilderness sparsely populated by primitive people's is a bunch of hooey.

Read it and have your foundational beliefs questioned!

3 people found this helpful

Comment

Why aren't the contents of his book part of our history lessons?!

July 26, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

So enjoyed 1491 - What an eye opener as to the reality of the Americas prior to the arrival of Columbus (Colon) and company! Such a rich & diverse number of Indian populations living and thriving for hundreds of years! Organized, largely populated cities existed, 50,000 + inhabitants. Doing all the warring with other Indian Nations, struggling within for control, evolving from hunter gathers to farmers (Large farms), trading up and down the river ways and shore lines. Life was vibrant and growing, just like in Europe. Information that was just brushed by, if even mentioned in history classes, even in college!

If you enjoy learning, Mr Mann presents his well researched, well documented and very laymen friendly style delivery for an excellent window revealing more than I dreamed of (suspected existed) into lives that existed in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans! Already have begun 1493!

2 people found this helpful

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A "must read" for any social science enthusiast

February 9, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Solid writing, fun to read, thought provoking and despite events from 500 years ago, the topics are contemporary. I'm using the same review for 1491 and 1493. Read both. I had two 11 hour flights, two weeks apart. I read 1491 on the first trip, 1493 on the second. (I'm reading "The Wizard and the Prophet" now, and I feel like these three books are a trilogy.)

2 people found this helpful

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Something like this really should be required reading for students as ...

December 27, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I bought this book after reading James Lowen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and wanting to know more about indigenous American history. What a truly fascinating and enlightening read - and so tragic. Something like this really should be required reading for students as it gives one a very different perspective on what was lost during the European conquest of the Americas and all the ways that European and African cultures benefitted from the scientific and organizational accomplishments of native American societies. Our very model of democracy, so often attributed to the Greeks, was hugely influenced by what existed in some native societies. This book also helps disabuse you of the notion that European conquest was ever a foregone conclusion - there were millions of people here in thick prosperous settlements, capable of waging very deadly war. Were it not for disease (and its effects illustrated so well here), it's unlikely Europeans would have ever been successful in the Americas nor would they have had the wealth to be able to so fully dominate other parts of the world. So much great stuff here - I'll probably have to read it again one day. I highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of the world.

3 people found this helpful

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