Table of Contents

List of Maps
Preface

INTRODUCTION / Holmberg’s Mistake

1. A View from Above

PART ONE / Numbers from Nowhere?

2. Why Billington Survived
3. In the Land of Four Quarters
4. Frequently Asked Questions

PART TWO / Very Old Bones

5. Pleistocene Wars
6. Cotton (or Anchovies) and Maize (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part I)
7. Writing, Wheels, and Bucket Brigades (Tales of Two Civilizations, Part II)

PART THREE / Landscape with Figures

8. Made in America
9. Amazonia
10. The Artificial Wilderness
11. The Great Law of Peace

Appendixes
A. Loaded Words
B. Talking Knots
C. The Syphilis Exception
D. Calendar Math

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

CHARLES C. MANN, a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has written for Fortune, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, and The Washington Post, as well as for the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. His 1491 won the National Academies Communication Award for the best book of the year. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

“A journalistic masterpiece.”
—The New York Review of Books

“Marvelous.... A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.... A remarkably engaging writer.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Fascinating.... A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other.”
—The Boston Globe

“A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit.... An exhilarating shift in perspective.... 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story.... 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental consequences of colonization.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“Engagingly written and utterly absorbing.... Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy.”
—The Miami Herald

“Provocative.... A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Marvelous.... A revelation.... Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned.”
—The New York Sun

“Monumental.... Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work.”
—Salon

“Concise and brilliantly entertaining.... Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail.”
—Los Angeles Times

A correspondent for Science and Atlantic Monthly, Mann reenvisions pre-Columbian America, offering evidence for a larger population and more sophisticated agricultural methods than we had imagined. With an eight-city tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

"A journalistic masterpiece."
-The New York Review of Books

"Marvelous.... A sweeping portrait of human life in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.... A remarkably engaging writer."
-The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating.... A landmark of a book that drops ingrained images of colonial American into the dustbin, one after the other."
-The Boston Globe

"A ripping, man-on-the-ground tour of a world most of us barely intuit.... An exhilarating shift in perspective.... 1491 erases our myth of a wilderness Eden. It replaces that fallacy with evidence of a different genesis, exciting and closer to true."
-The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Mann tells a powerful, provocative and important story.... 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental consequences of colonization."
-The Washington Post Book World

"Engagingly written and utterly absorbing.... Part detective story, part epic and part tragedy."
-The Miami Herald

"Provocative.... A Jared Diamond-like volley that challenges prevailing thinking about global development. Mann has chronicled an important shift in our vision of world development, one out young children could end up studying in their text books when they reach junior high."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"Marvelous.... A revelation.... Our concept of pure wilderness untouched by grubby human hands must now be jettisoned."
-The New York Sun

"Monumental.... Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive work."
-Salon

"Concise and brilliantly entertaining.... Reminiscent of John McPhee's eloquence with scientific detail."
-Los Angeles Times