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Comment by roughly | Hacker News Reader

1491 by Michael Mann is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in the Americas before European arrival. It’s a fantastic book that will change how you think about indigenous cultures in the Americas and make this kind of thing seem a lot less surprising.

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I think you mean Charles Mann :) Michael Mann is a director of heist movies.

also this guy -- http://www.met.psu.edu/people/mem45

I just get Log in to your Penn State Account.

Challenge accepted

That's the spirit! :-)

Whoops, yes, Charles Mann. Too late for an edit or delete; guess that typo's just gonna live there now.

Although Michael Mann's filmography is pretty good, too.

hey you were in the right general neighborhood.

"that dude that wrote the book about the thing" is as far as I usually get. "you know, the cover was blue"

Anyone who has encountered a potato or corn (maize) should know that the Americas had superior agricultural technology to Europe. Metallurgy and mechanics just leave more obvious artifacts.

I read this in my late teenage years. I can safely say it had a great impact on me and how I view the world. It was especially jarring as I was still in high school and the narrative I was being taught / had been taught was quite... well it left out a lot of things.

Would also recommend the follow up, 1493 for a comparison of how Columbus altered these cultures. Excellent books.

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