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1491 Research Paper
The title of the book I read was 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. It was written by Charles C. Mann. Other books by this author include Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species and The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics. 1491 is based around Native Americans and how they really lived before European settlers came to the Americas. This is a very interesting, as well as extremely informative book that gives unbiased and well-thought-out information about on the peoples about which that the author writes. about. I personally found this book to be a very good read. Charles Mann is a fantastic writer, and he makes everything about this book interesting. He knows how to put things so that he really grabs the reader's attention and keeps you interested to learn more. He is very descriptive and words things in a way that is understandable for me, the reader. He also has a very extensive vocabulary, which makes the reading even more interesting. Mann also uses tons of information that he has gathered. He makes very good points to his topics, as well, and he makes these points very clear. Because of this, I did not find anything that I really disagreed with him on. The book mostly speaks of how much false information is widely believed in the world today about early Americans before Columbus and the Europeans settled in the New World. Many scholars in the past have made false assumptions on about the Native Americans because of their own ethnocentric opinions. For example, today most people view the early Americans as being very nature-oriented, but not very intelligent people who live in small, isolated tribes scattered across the country, who also never did anything to change their environment. However, these assumptions are not true. The Indians actually had a huge impact on their land, mostly for the better. They cleared land to plant more nut and fruit trees, they grew tons of crops, they even created maize. One group in particular, the Beni, was exceptional in the area of purposing land for their its benefit. They built huge mounds in an area that was constantly being flooded. By doing so, this allowed them to grow crops and trees on the mounds. They even made traps below the mounds to trap fish when the area did flood. Overall, I found the book to be very memorable. I really enjoyed reading this book and I will remember a lot of the information that it has taught me for a long time. I can't think of anything that I disagree with the author on, since Charles Mann does make very good points, and he is impressively convincing. I think that the information given in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus will open the eyes of many people and teach a lot of people more about the history of the Native Americans. This is a very good and informative book that gives unbiased and trustworthy information about the early Americans before and after Europeans settled in the Americas.

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