Bibliograph

1491, new revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles C. Mann

Type

Label

1491, new revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles C. Mann

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [465]-523) and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

1491

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

72680543

Responsibility statement

Charles C. Mann

Sub title

new revelations of the Americas before Columbus

Summary

Mann shows how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques have come to previously unheard-of conclusions about the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans: In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe. Certain cities--such as Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital--were greater in population than any European city. Tenochtitlán, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets. The earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the Egyptians built the great pyramids. Native Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived in a hemisphere already massively "landscaped" by human beings. Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process that the journal Science recently described as "man's first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering."--From publisher description

Table Of Contents

Introduction: Holmberg's mistake: View from above -- Numbers from nowhere?: Why Billington survived -- In the land of four quarters -- Frequently asked questions -- Very old bones: Pleistocene wars -- Cotton (or anchovies) and maize (tales of two civilizations, part I) -- Writing, wheels, and bucket brigades (tales of two civilizations, part II) -- Landscape with figures: Made in America -- Amazonia -- Artificial wilderness -- Great law of peace

Classification