1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

This riveting, accessible work argues that most of what we thought we knew about the Americas before Columbus was wrong. Rather than a small number of people living lightly on the land, a vast population of Indians managed the land beautifully, leaving behind an enormous ecological legacy. This eye-opening reexamination of our history is an enthralling journey of scientific exploration.

Original material © 2005 Charles C. Mann. Recorded by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

The Washington Post - Alan Taylor

… Mann's 1491 vividly compels us to re-examine how we teach the ancient history of the Americas and how we live with the environmental consequences of colonization.

Charles C. Mann is a correspondent for Science and The Atlantic Monthly, and has cowritten four previous books including Noah’s Choice: The Future of Endangered Species and The Second Creation. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has won awards from the American Bar Association, the Margaret Sanger Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among others. His writing was selected for The Best American Science Writing 2003 and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003. He lives with his wife and their children in Amherst, Massachusetts.