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Search for the First Americans
This book introduces the general reader to the archaeology of the peoples who inhabited North America during the prehistoric period.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 18, 2020
A truly amazing book, which provides a really thorough review of what we know about the origins of humanity in the Americas, how we know it, and why it matters. Written carefully and engagingly, this book should be of interest to anyone who cares about how science is done, in the real world, with all the sharp edges intact. It was that most important sort of book -- it made me think deeply and in new territories.
In addition , this book was just wonderful to read. The clarity of the author's style, the careful organization he put into the work, and the amazing balance between theoretical debates and a narrative of key discoveries made this work just as fascinating as a work of fiction. And it had me thinking about some aspect of 'how we know what we know' on almost every other page. Even the Author's Acknowledgements was fun to read.
This book threatens my definition of 'popular science' -- a term I usually associate with oversimplified summaries, lots of pictures, tables that are far removed from their source data, no math and no references. I read books like that, especially if written by a practitioner in a field I want to get an overview about, but I don't confuse them with science books. But here ... there are cited sources, albeit symposia and review volumes in a nicely annotated bibliography of just about the right size; there are well-chosen graphics of such things as artifact distribution used to make key points, and the text does a nice job of showing both the current consensus and the controversies that remain. This reads more like an invited review paper than a popular science book.
I was interested in the subject, and have read occasional articles about aspects of the origin of humanity in the Americas, usually picking things at a Scientific American level. I knew enough to know of the Clovis consensus, and of the potential challenges to it in certain South American sites. So I was interested enough to start reading. This is the first book I've seen in the Smithsonian series (I'm a great fan of the Institution), and I partly picked it up to see how they were handling such writing. I am personally VERY interested in how science can be communicated, and I think this book sets a very high standard. I am particularly impressed at how it tells the complicated interdisciplinary story of archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, new technologies and connections to historical studies all work together to provide insights. It might even be of greater interest to scientists who are NOT interested directly in the first Americans for its example of how to write effective scientific discussions for a broader audience.
If you know a lot about this subject, maybe this book will be too introductory for you. But if you are at all interested in how we know something about pre-history in America, how we can narrow down that prehistory to be long enough for the developments Europeans encountered but sill relatively short in human culture terms, this book is worth your time.
In addition , this book was just wonderful to read. The clarity of the author's style, the careful organization he put into the work, and the amazing balance between theoretical debates and a narrative of key discoveries made this work just as fascinating as a work of fiction. And it had me thinking about some aspect of 'how we know what we know' on almost every other page. Even the Author's Acknowledgements was fun to read.
This book threatens my definition of 'popular science' -- a term I usually associate with oversimplified summaries, lots of pictures, tables that are far removed from their source data, no math and no references. I read books like that, especially if written by a practitioner in a field I want to get an overview about, but I don't confuse them with science books. But here ... there are cited sources, albeit symposia and review volumes in a nicely annotated bibliography of just about the right size; there are well-chosen graphics of such things as artifact distribution used to make key points, and the text does a nice job of showing both the current consensus and the controversies that remain. This reads more like an invited review paper than a popular science book.
I was interested in the subject, and have read occasional articles about aspects of the origin of humanity in the Americas, usually picking things at a Scientific American level. I knew enough to know of the Clovis consensus, and of the potential challenges to it in certain South American sites. So I was interested enough to start reading. This is the first book I've seen in the Smithsonian series (I'm a great fan of the Institution), and I partly picked it up to see how they were handling such writing. I am personally VERY interested in how science can be communicated, and I think this book sets a very high standard. I am particularly impressed at how it tells the complicated interdisciplinary story of archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, new technologies and connections to historical studies all work together to provide insights. It might even be of greater interest to scientists who are NOT interested directly in the first Americans for its example of how to write effective scientific discussions for a broader audience.
If you know a lot about this subject, maybe this book will be too introductory for you. But if you are at all interested in how we know something about pre-history in America, how we can narrow down that prehistory to be long enough for the developments Europeans encountered but sill relatively short in human culture terms, this book is worth your time.
Displaying 1 of 1 review