1491 - Thought provoking history book
I'm a history buff. I recently finished reading Charles Mann's excellent history of the Americas prior to Columbus' arrival, 1491. This book lays out the information we've currently got about precolumbian civilizations, and it's both eye opening and very well-written. Like most Americans, I got my assumptions about this period when I was seven years old in elementary school around Thanksgiving. Those assumptions are almost certainly wrong. Some random facts I picked up in this book:
- a great anaysis of the political realities around the Indians that met the Pilgrims.
- a striking understanding that there were two waves of impressions of the Indians. The first, much less undestood, were when Europeans first arrived. The second, later wave of impressions were of a civilization that had been devastated by diseases brought by the first group of europeans.
- I had no idea just how dominated my impressions of early americas were dominated by the second wave. The disorganized, hunter-gatherer cultures were the scattered remnants of destroyed civilizations that lost up to 90% of their populations to Smallpox and other diseases.
- I didn't really know much about the Incas and other South American cultures; this filled me in.
Just a sampling; every page was fascinating. Very well written - worth the read if you're at all interested in history.
14 Comments:
Excellent, I will need to add that to my reading list. Right now I am reading Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Vincent Buglosi.
Basically it aims to dispel just about every conspiracy theory about the assassination and lays out the reasoning behind why Oswald acted alone and how he did it.
Not sure if you are into that stuff, but I just started it and it is a fascinating read so far.
http://www.reclaiminghistory.com/
Thanks for the suggestion.
I wish future (large format) Zune device could support eBooks and Zinio digital magazines.
eBook:
http://www.ereader.com/product/detail/23193?book=1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus
Thanks Dave. I'll pick this up this week.
Paul
Its August 1st, anything new?
Hi Dave,
This is Dennis. Yes, that Dennis, former college roommate, concert goer, etc. How the heck are you? You look exactly the same, which is just not right.
E-mail me if you want to catch up. I decided to post because I couldn't find a way to contact you directly through your profile. Talk to you later.
Dude, are you okay or is the Zune just dead?? No word from either you nor ZuneGuy; ZuneInsider is legally absent ...but is there anything new, any inside scoop on the development for the Zune 2 ... or should I just not hold off and simply go and buy an iPod?
Dennis, cool. Glad you found me. I can't send you email - don't know your mail.
Send me a note and your email - my email can be found at www.zunester.com/contact.doc. Password is your last name.
cnut:
Not dead yet, just trying to keep our heads down. I'll post something to prove I'm alive (just got back from Disneyland and have some random thoughts) but we're not approved to talk about anything that might be coming up soon...
Hey David, about the Nokia/Microsoft deal struck a few weeks ago. What is PlayReady? How does that differ from Zune? Will this allow us to play Zune DRM'd content on Nokia phones? Anything else you feel is relevant there? Thanks and good to see you back.
In addition to my previous question, what do you make of the Rhapsody + Urge deal?
This is supposed to be similar to when a king dies (in UK they shout out "The king is dead, long live the king!"-swap king for a queen when Elisabeth II will die), even though the Zune can't be compared to a king, it's more like a joker now
The Zune is dead ...long live the Zune!
Dude this ridiculous, you need to come out and talk. What do you guys think of Apple launching a WiFi Store before you guys did? Did you expect it? Now Apple is gunning for Windows Mobile with their iPhone price reduction to $399. You guys can't be too thrilled that Apple is spreading OS X like wild flower. $299 for entry level OS X (iPod Touch) is pretty good. Whats crazy, is that you guys were in the space with PocketPCs.
Mr. Coulton:
Do you seriously have no idea how furious, disappointed and angry many early adopters are? Cesar Mendez of www.zuneinsider.com says nothing on his site. The only news there is about BBQs, bus tours, and "Zune" cakes; you have not updated your blog for almost two months and www.zuneguy.com has not been updated since May, 2007.
All independent Zune blogs and news sites are filled with rightly angry consumers while the "Zune Team" sits on their hands with the lips sewn shut, while eager early adopters are left watching Apple implement the one thing that made Zune stand apart. It certainly did not come out of the box with any other remarkable features.
Also, this subliminal idea that Microsoft seems to have that all Zune users are 12-25 years old and are not interested in podcasts or audiobooks is ludicrous and insults the intelligence of adults who purchased Zune for just such media.
All in all, I must say that I, along with many, many others, are extremely disappointed in the lack of communication and support we expected from Microsoft. There is no official Zune blog site with news of any kind. Please have someone at Microsoft take the time to read what your customers have been saying, asking for, requesting for almost ten months. Is it so hard to make the customers who would recommend your product happy?
A week and a half ago, while in the checkout line of Borders, the sales clerk asked me about Zune as his third-generation iPod was on its way out. I told him to wait for the iPod announcement on September 5th and see what they had to offer. I believe, now, I was right to do this and not recommend a device that he would surely have been unhappy with.
Having said that, I must stress that I am not ranting at you, personally. I am just a very frustrated Zune owner.
Thank you.
LAN
^^Ditto.
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