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14th out of 142 books
—
31 voters
House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest
by
Craig Childs
The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's southwestern New Mexico) and built what has been called the Las Vegas of its day, a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The...more
Hardcover, 512 pages
Published
February 22nd 2007
by Little, Brown and Company
(first published 2007)
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Rain and the desert: polar opposites, at least to most people. Say the word desert in a crowd of people from a temperate climate, and immediately images of saguaro catci, bleached cow skulls, rattlesnakes, sand dunes, and sombreros come to mind. Dig a little deeper, and some people might think of the distant Native Americans, guiltily mumbling about how white people forced them onto godforsaken spits of land that nobody else wanted. What might surprise the average observer is that those people (...more
When I first began reading this book, I was irritated by how much of Craig Childs' personal story and opinions were interspersed among the really interesting archaeological digs in which he participated and in his unveiling of the history of the Ancestral Puebloans. But then I was remembered my favorite quote from The English Patient, "But you do not find adultery in the minutes of the Geographical Society," and my opinion suddenly softened.
Professors at the top of their fields have to be some o...more
Professors at the top of their fields have to be some o...more
This is one of my new favorite books and one of my new favorite authors. House of Rain delves into one of the great mysteries of the Americas, the "disappearance" of the ancient pueblo dwellers of the Southwest. Sometimes called the "Anasazi", more recently referred to as Ancestral Puebloans, Childs tracks the history and the people across time. This is a fascinating journey, with solid roots in current archaeology which he seamlessly blends into a much broader understanding. The events that too...more
This book is fascinating reading although at times it feels a little inflated with the author's sense of himself. It is hard to believe an intelligent someone would do things like jump in a swollen river or take similar chances. However, the vocabulary and sentences that read like poetry in places kept me reading.
Childs tells of his fascination with old cliff dwellings in the Southwest and how he walks among the relics, travels from one area to another, what he learns, what he thinks. He did he...more
Childs tells of his fascination with old cliff dwellings in the Southwest and how he walks among the relics, travels from one area to another, what he learns, what he thinks. He did he...more
About a year ago in a chain store in Lakewood I picked this book up and read the first few pages. I was ecstatic to find someone had written a book on water and the movement of people in the southwest. I put it down and waited for it to fall in my lap again, which it did last week at the St Johns library.
Beginning in Chaco Canyon, Childs goes walking and visiting people and places throughout the Colorado Plateau and South. As he goes he gets a better sense of things. Yup. This was a book needing...more
Beginning in Chaco Canyon, Childs goes walking and visiting people and places throughout the Colorado Plateau and South. As he goes he gets a better sense of things. Yup. This was a book needing...more
The author walks across a good portion of the Southwest, searching out the ebb and flow the ancient people probably took as nature, weather, political situations and who knows what else changed. He finally follows them down to Mexico and makes the very interesting point that most American archeologists/anthropologist think of ancient American as stopping at the border when of course ancient peoples had no such idea.
At times, he takes his wife and infant with him and they all camp out, climb thro...more
At times, he takes his wife and infant with him and they all camp out, climb thro...more
Jun 23, 2009
Patrick Gibson
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all who dare
Recommended to Patrick by:
the author
Shelves:
the_west,
truth_sort-of
Put your tongue forcefully into the side of your cheek and keep it there while you read this book—just to remind yourself most of what you are reading is conjecture and poppycock. But—and here’s the important part—you’ll have a hell of a good read! As I went from one exploit to another, I kept having doubts what I was reading was probably more fiction than fact. I have no doubt Craig trekked form Chaco to Aztec, and he flirted with the Ranger early in the morning, swam the San Juan, and continue...more
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I'm extremely torn on this book. While it does have some interesting information, the author offers claims with no support. Every few chapters he drops of researcher's name, and maybe a decade during which the research took place, but his facts offer little more information than that, and even this meager offering of documentation is scarce at best. For instance, he mentions, in a past-tense story, the ‘recent’ research on corn-based diets, namely that a too heavily reliance on corn in the diet...more
A geographical story of the Anasazi and their migrations told as the author hikes through their territory in the southwest. The investigation relies heavily on scholarly literature, oral tradition, and lots of reading between the lines of history in addition to the author's experience of the landscape to imagine the Anasazi culture. Somewhere in the overly long story there is a really good book about the thesis that the Anasazi did not disappear but in their migrations tie a direct thread to the...more
A very up to date and personal account of some of the major archeological issues and discoveries in the Southwest. But more than that it is a personal journey on foot across hundreds of miles of some of the most challenging and interesting terrain still to be found in our country--or anywhere else. Childs brings back many personal memories of my own days traversing some of that same terrain and exploring the amazing archeology of our unique southwestern region. Part travelogue, part exploration,...more
About 50 pages need to be cut from this book. If the excessive descriptions and romanticization of the author were trimmed, the remainder would make for a fun, informative story.
More to the point: This book is about the Anasazi, or ancestral pueblo, and about various efforts to uncover their history. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they didn't vanish off the face of the earth, but rather migrated north to Utah and then south through AZ to Mexico. They were a migratory people, shifting their li...more
More to the point: This book is about the Anasazi, or ancestral pueblo, and about various efforts to uncover their history. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they didn't vanish off the face of the earth, but rather migrated north to Utah and then south through AZ to Mexico. They were a migratory people, shifting their li...more
I recently visited Southern Colorado and Utah, where my curiosity about the Anasazi (a word used to describe a very diverse and large group of people who inhabited pre-Columbus Southwest U.S.) was piqued by the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde and the various pictographs. This book was featured in every bookstore--the advertising worked.
In the book, Childs' writes about his travels through the Southwest U.S. and Mexico in search of the migration routes of the Anasazi . The book reads like a journa...more
In the book, Childs' writes about his travels through the Southwest U.S. and Mexico in search of the migration routes of the Anasazi . The book reads like a journa...more
Sep 25, 2011
Louise Dunlap
added it
Recommends it for:
Someone interested in the SouthWest
Recommended to Louise by:
My parents
Shelves:
archeology,
american-southwest
This was one of beach-reads between long distance swims at my favorite lake.
While I love the water, I admit I will never jump into a flash flood to get to a trailhead, as Childs describes doing in this book.
He's crazy, in a good way, and a fastastic writer.
One of my dreams is to have a long stay with hiking in the American SouthWest -- Chaco Canyon, Monument Valley, and the like. This book is providing me with a lot of valuable history of the people and landscape, and is fueling my urge to go....more
While I love the water, I admit I will never jump into a flash flood to get to a trailhead, as Childs describes doing in this book.
He's crazy, in a good way, and a fastastic writer.
One of my dreams is to have a long stay with hiking in the American SouthWest -- Chaco Canyon, Monument Valley, and the like. This book is providing me with a lot of valuable history of the people and landscape, and is fueling my urge to go....more
"I let my pack down and climbed the branches of a stocky tree, going up to the light fist by fist. At the top I found myself on the side of a mountain looking down into a bald spot, a place where pine trees gave way to junipers that opened into a dry pastureland. There a partly ruined pueblo stood in the first long bolts of the sun. This was Kinishba, one of the great fourteenth-century pueblos of the Mogollon Highlands. Two stories tall, Kinishba's shadow ran long through sage exactly on the ma...more
This book was atmospheric, understated, and full of information. Craig Childs is so unassuming and honest in his narrative that you almost don't realize he is putting forth a pretty novel claim about migration patterns of the Anasazi (and related ancestral groups).
He sees differently than all other writers I have read on the topic, having an academic training approaching that of an archaeologist, but having the mindset and the body of an ancient Anasazi. He walks where they walked, suffers from...more
He sees differently than all other writers I have read on the topic, having an academic training approaching that of an archaeologist, but having the mindset and the body of an ancient Anasazi. He walks where they walked, suffers from...more
One of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Craig Childs demonstrates his artistry as a master story teller. Even though I live in a region of the southwest adjacent to many of the areas described in the book, I learned many new and fascinating details about the ancestral puebloans. They were truly a unique and multi-faceted culture that unfolded and blossomed in a harsh environment. As a result of climate variation, they had to be able to disperse from areas when the resources c...more
"Normally during a drought, Anasazi population centers would have disbanded, sending people into the hinterlands to farm in smaller, more sustainable groups. However, with increasing conflict people moved closer together for protection rather than spreading apart."
Uncovering layers of history, archaeology, geology and mystery, the author explores the Four Corners region on down to northern Mexico seeking answers to the fate of the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans). It is a fascinating, well research...more
Uncovering layers of history, archaeology, geology and mystery, the author explores the Four Corners region on down to northern Mexico seeking answers to the fate of the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans). It is a fascinating, well research...more
Craig Childs is that quirky and passionate kind of individual that opens our eyes to new ideas both by the presentation of, and the way he became an expert in, those ideas. Who really were the Anasazi? (Here I am ignoring Childs lengthy discussion of the correct terms to use to describe the people of the Southwest.) How did they live? Who are their descendants? What was their culture like? What did they know and understand about the world? Childs is a gifted writer, sharing current anthropologic...more
This was a highly engrossing read, combining a travelogue with archaeological research to create a vivid portrait of one of the most fascinating prehistoric North American civilizations, the Ancestral Pueblans. Childs has a wonderfully poetic voice, which he uses to bring the details of the beautiful US Southwest to life. By combining these descriptions with information gleaned from a number of archaeologist, the book renders some powerful (albeit speculative) images of how the Ancestral Pueblan...more
The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's southwestern New Mexico) and built what has been called the Las Vegas of its day, a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments - in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture, and in engineering - were astounding, rival...more
I got this book when I visited Tucson recently because I wanted to read something about the history of the Southwest. I thought Mr. Childs did a really interesting and thorough job of tracking the Anasazi (or Ancestral Puebloan) civilization across both time and geography and he chose a very effective way of telling the story. Unfortunately I thought he spent too much time talking about himself and it kept interrupting the narrative that I was really captivated by. A worthwhile read if you are i...more
Nice read on travelling through the Southwest whilst tripping on the people who used to live there. This guy writes so well you can feel the hot desert sun baking you into the ground as you turn the pages, or the biting cold of a star filled night while you hang on his every word.
Awesome book, but the ending kind of just drops off without the detail that preceeded it, and you kind of feel like it got put together in pieces rather than all at once. Almost like he got tired of writing and needed t...more
Awesome book, but the ending kind of just drops off without the detail that preceeded it, and you kind of feel like it got put together in pieces rather than all at once. Almost like he got tired of writing and needed t...more
This book is not meant to be an Archeology text. It contains factual information while reading like a travel adventure. The so-called disappearance of the ancient Pueblo tribes of the Southwest (formerly referred to as Anasazi) is still being researched and no one can point to one thing. Childs has his theories. The importance of water (and rain) seems to play a sizeable role in the cultural lives of the people, as it still does today in arid climates. One cannot take lightly the power (to take...more
The goal of House of Rain is to track the Anasazi through the American Southwest to reach an understanding of where they went and why. The book, however, accomplishes another goal. It returns Native Americans to their status as human, as complicated, as real. It shows that like every other human culture, the Ancestral Puebloan, Anazasi, Native American, Indian (however you identify them) were like every other human culture that has occupied this planet in some very fundamental ways. Right here o...more
Since moving to Utah 5 years ago I have become fascinated with the Anasazi. A couple of trips into the desert to see rock art and runs of kivas and cliff dwellings left me itching to know more. Anyone who learns of the Anasazi quickly bumps into the "where did they go?" and "why did they leave" questions. In "House of Rain" Craig Childs does a really great job of pulling together all of the current research to tell a very compelling story about where they went. It leaves me still wondering why t...more
I have been very interested in the archaeology and anthropology of the historic culture that modern scientists have dubbed the Anasazi ever since 1988 when my brother and I backpacked into the Grand Gulch of Utah where I got my first glimpse of the extensive artifacts left behind by these people. So, I hoped that by reading House of Rain I would get a little more insight and education on the subject.
In most ways, this book did not disappoint. It is partially a travelogue, which was very interest...more
In most ways, this book did not disappoint. It is partially a travelogue, which was very interest...more
This book is very different, and delightedly so, from what I expected. Childs intersperses discussions with leading archaeologists in the field and in their offices, encounters with native people, and his and his family's own expeditions through sites from the Colorado Plateau into northern Mexico to piece together a story of the migrations of the people we've come to know as the Anasazi.
His deep interesting and understanding of the topics at hand is apparent, but what I didn't expect was his ab...more
His deep interesting and understanding of the topics at hand is apparent, but what I didn't expect was his ab...more
from Amazon...
" The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest relates to the Anasazi, the native peoples who by the 11th century converged on Chaco Canyon (now New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture and engineering--were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans in distant Central America.
By the 13th ce...more
" The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest relates to the Anasazi, the native peoples who by the 11th century converged on Chaco Canyon (now New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture and engineering--were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans in distant Central America.
By the 13th ce...more
There are so many academic books written about Southwest Native American history, but Craig Childs brings history to life with his adventurer, 'mountain man' approach. He is wonderfully personable, and the reader can't help bit feel that they are there with him in the dust and heat, following the remains and memories of people long ago. Fantastically written - truly great book. All archaeologists should certainly read this as a marker of how to do good fieldwork.
Feb 09, 2011
Sandy D.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
history,
non-fiction,
anthropology,
united-states,
western-u-s,
science,
native-peoples,
archaeology
A writer decides to visit a bunch of archaeologists and Anasazi (and related Mogollon, Salado & other) sites, and update the public on this "vanished civilization" of the American Southwest. It's pretty good, although he jumps back & forth from the archaeological theories to his experience walking around the sites a lot, and I was occasionally annoyed by his descriptions. He does a really good job of translating the scientific jargon, though, and making it interesting to the general read...more
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CRAIG CHILDS is a commentator for NPR's Morning Edition, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men's Journal, Outside, The Sun, and Orion. He has won numerous awards including the 2011 Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award, 2008 Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the 2007 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, and the 2003 Spirit of the West Award for his body of work.
More about Craig Childs...
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