Kenneth L Feder
With a scope as wide as a continent and a wry, sudden
sense of humor, this author has written an amazing book. It tells the
prehistory and some of the modern history of the North American native peoples.
In a lot of detail, including archeological digs and records written by the
European settles, plus some native peoples’ legends and historical memories as
well.
He did not include Central or South America much—I guess that was out of scope. Too bad! I would have enjoyed reading about it. But I was still amazed at the cities and civilizations of North America that I’d never even heard about. Mound builders, yeah, I’d heard of them. But the whole Cahokia (modern name) settlement in the Midwest? It was huge! Wow.
His archaeology stuff was really fascinating to me, but I wish he’d included a little more of the genetic analysis results that are helping to explain the connections and divergences between populations. The food and agriculture sections are good, but I wanted more.
Still, a fabulous work of scholarship. And some humor.
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