1491 by Charles Mann

At one of my speaking engagements, an audience member recommended the book 1491 by Charles C. Mann. He enthusiastically described the book as "a description of what America was like before Columbus discovered it."

While the book is much more than that description, it was enough for me to take an interest. What I found was a very well researched, spellbinding account of the pre-Columbian Americas - North America, Central America, and South America.

Most accurately, this book can be described as "revisionist history" of the pre-Columbian Americas. After all, Mann does retell the story of the first Thanksgiving in a way not taught in American schools. In fact, that was Mann's motivation for writing the book.

After realizing that his young son was learning the same stories about Thanksgiving that he did as a child, but also knowing that there was a whole new wave of research detailing much more accurately the relationship of the European settlers and the native American people, Mann decided to learn more. His learnings took him all across continents, into research libraries, and visiting remote ruins.

Technically, it is revisionist history. But, the connotation of that phrase makes Mann's book sound like pages of conspiracy theory. It is decidedly not that. Mann's book is highlights much of the research done in the last 50 years about the inhabitants of the Americas. Mann cites the research, highlights the scientists, and details their arguments. He hides nothing and in doing so legitimizes the book and the stories. 

It is such a broad story, that writing a review is challenging. There are too many facts to do them justice here. There are too many detailed stories to retell them all here. There are too many rich characters to discuss - wouldn't do most of them justice to tell their stories here. 

But, I'll try...

The book is structured in three main sections:

• Numbers From Nowhere which is a discussion if how many Indians were in the Western Hemisphere. Spoiler alert, it is a helluva lot more than we previously thought. 
• Very Old Bones uncovers the very old origins of Indians in the Western Hemisphere. Spoiler alert, people were in the Americas long before we originally thought. 
• Landscape With Figures an interesting look at how the land in the Western Hemisphere. Spoiler alert, the land was carefully curated by its Indian inhabitants. 

Mann covers inhabitants from a wide range of time periods: the Dawnland tribes (my favorite name for the groups of people that lived in the North East of North America), the Clovis culture, The Triple Alliance (widely known as Aztecs), the Maya, the Inca, and many others. 

Many of these cultures artifacts and impacts on the land still exist today. Cities, towns, farm fields, public spaces are being unearthed and preserved. These active discoveries are giving us a new perspective on the importance of the Western hemisphere in the human story. 

I highly recommend 1491 by Charles Mann. While it isn't an "easy" read, it is enjoyable. Charles Mann keeps it light at times with a few humorous comments. The stories are compelling, exciting, and enlightening.