The image of Christopher Columbus has changed in my lifetime. I grew up learning the poem “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue . . .” and the names of the ships, the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria. I think of Columbus as a fairly benign character. Today, the view is different, not so much against Columbus the person, but for what he ushered in; imperialism, disease, genocide. The focus isn’t only on the explorer, but what happened to the indigenous people as a result of the exploration.
Charles C. Mann‘s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before 
Columbus examines the Americas before Columbus. He explains the Holmberg Mistake, basically our cultural view of Indians as ‘Noble Savages’ that for centuries lived lightly on the land without change. Mr. Mann turns that theory on it’s head arguing that it diminishes all that American Indians accomplished over centuries. The book reviews evidence from anthropology, science and archeology to demonstrate that the Indian population was multiple times larger in 1491 than in the first few decades after contact. The huge decrease in numbers (by some estimates 80 to 100 million) resulted from disease that raced across the continent after relatively minor human and animal contact (notably pigs and rats). Mr. Mann demonstrates that Indians established societies in North and South American long before previously imagined and that they developed into sophisticated and complex communities with cultural and governance norms that rival or exceed developments in the Western world. He describes how the Indian populations controlled their environment through fire, planting trees that grew into forests of orchards and engineering corn. I was left with a view of Indian culture completely different from school lessons, literature or American culture. The book explains the evidence for truly astounding societies, cultures and accomplishments. I wish I had a dollar for every time I thought ‘I had no idea.’
A few years ago, Claire and I attended a lecture by E.O. Wilson and he commented on the American public’s dearth of scientific knowledge. He was talking about me. I decided right then to read at least one science book a year. Science isn’t my passion, so I look for a book that is scientific, but doesn’t seem so; similar to hiding medicine in chocolate so you can’t taste the medicine. This book is a perfect fit, it’s a combination of science, archeology, anthropology and history that feels like a mystery as the reader is trying to figure out the past with so little evidence.
Mr. Mann gives convincing theories on several mysteries. How did the Indians get to the Americas (that Bering Strait theory is old news)? Why didn’t the Indians use the wheel for anything beyond toys? What happened to the Mayans? Why did the Incas fall so quickly to so few Spaniards (it’s more than guns)? Where did corn come from? How have the Indians lived in the Amazon forest (look at what the forest is made of)?
It’s fascinating. Not only what I learned, but also that with new discoveries the experts re-evaluate their theories, sometimes one thought is a building block for another, other times one cherished theory is completely wrong. Which leads me to want to stay tuned, who knows what will change in the next 10 years.
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