Review of 1491 by Charles Mann
This is the first comprehensive look at the people of the pre-Columbian Americas. I found the style to be very accessible and entertaining, and the book full of new information for this reader. Mann’s work here is considered to be “revisionist” in that he challenges many of the orthodoxies of anthropology and history in regard to Indigenous people. As an outsider to these disciplines –he is a journalist– he is able to filter both the new findings and the old prejudices with a more objective eye than most inside observers.
duane poncy - 24 Dec 2006 - Comments Off
