1: How old was the "new world"? -- Cities in the desert -- Genetic engineering -- From Olmec to Maya -- To the land of four quarters -- 2: Why did Europe succeed? -- The great meeting -- Long, long ago -- Extinction -- Disease-free paradise? -- 3: Were the Americas really a wilderness? -- Amazonia -- Land of fire -- The created wilderness.
Summary
This study of Native American societies is adapted for younger readers from Charles C. Mann's best-selling 1491. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the book argues that the people of North and South America lived in enormous cities, raised pyramids hundreds of years before the Egyptians did, engineered corn, and farmed the rainforests.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. 110) and index.
