1491: Interview w/ Charles C. Mann Video

Disclose.tv - 1491: Interview w/ Charles C. Mann Video


John Herron interviews Author Charles C. Mann about his controversial book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus (Vintage 2005) The book covers topics such as the berengia myth, more realistic population numbers, and the amazing technological, societal, and scientific achievements of the Natives of the Americas, some of which are touched on in the interview, that took place on Talking History, Dec. 2005. 1491 is one of my favorite books and will open your eyes as to the greatness of peoples of the Americas prior to the European onslaught.

From Publishers Weekly Starred Review: "In a riveting and fast-paced history, massing archeological, anthropological, scientific and literary evidence, Mann debunks much of what we thought we knew about pre-Columbian America. Reviewing the latest, not widely reported research in Indian demography, origins and ecology, Mann zestfully demonstrates that long before any European explorers set foot in the New World, Native American cultures were flourishing with a high degree of sophistication. The new researchers have turned received wisdom on its head. For example, it has long been believed the Inca fell to Pizarro because they had no metallurgy to produce steel for weapons. In fact, scholars say, the Inca had a highly refined metallurgy, but valued plasticity over strength. What defeated the Inca was not steel but smallpox and resulting internecine warfare. Mann also shows that the Maya constructed huge cities and governed them with a cohesive set of political ideals. Most notably, according to Mann, the Haudenosaunee, in what is now the Northeast U.S., constructed a loose confederation of tribes governed by the principles of individual liberty and social equality. The author also weighs the evidence that Native populations were far larger than previously calculated. Mann, a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and Science, masterfully assembles a diverse body of scholarship into a first-rate history of Native America and its inhabitants."