North America Books

This history doesn't deal with the explorations in a vacuum. Every voyage to America was prompted and influenced by a variety of social, economic, political, and technological factors in its country of origin, and Morrison gives a thorough view of the background of the explorers and their home country before treating the expeditions themselves. This book will not only tell you what the explorers discovered, but what they were looking for and why.

For all of those interested in the Viking expeditions to North America, this book tells the definitive story. The exact site of the first Viking settlement has been identified, and the archaeological evidence is discussed here. There is also a thorough debunking of several spurious "Viking stones" in places like Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Other explorations of North America are covered in fascinating detail, including the seasonal but very active sixteenth-century fishing outposts in Newfoundland, and the many attempts to discover the elusive Northwest Passage.

As a naval historian, Morrison devoted a fair number of pages in this book to technical descriptions of ships and sailing. The uninterested reader can safely skim over these parts without detracting from the historical saga, but this landlubber found it interesting to trace the technological development of the vessels that crossed the Atlantic.

In short, if you have any interest in who explored the Americas, why they went there, and what they experienced, then this is absolutely the best book you can read on the subject.

Each of the 87 areas includes a quick summary of important info such as distance & elevation, detailed instructions to reach the areas and find the trailheads (and whether 4WD is required), a basic map of the wilderness area (including access roads and designated trails), discussion of geology, plants, wildlife, and sometimes historical notes. Many areas include B&W pictures.

Some areas have descriptions of activities beyond hiking, such as river running, rock climbing, and cross-country skiing.

This book is one of Scott Warren's exemplary outdoor-related books. This mammoth effort includes area and trail descriptions for 87 of Arizona's Wild Areas. Descriptions of each area include statistics, hiking seasons recommended, plants and wildlife, geology, and a hiking narrative which includes good trail information as well as detailed information on how to access trailheads. An excellent basic map detailing every trail accompanies each area. This book is the first one I reach for when I am looking for Arizona hiking information. I am sure it will be yours too

Jeremy Sabloff's book apart from the rest is how he approaches the subject. He refers

to his book as a story, and provides his reader with a very concise overview of the Maya

civilization. The clarity of his text enhances the usefulness of the book, which in turn

broadens the audience from anthropology students to anyone interested in learning

about the Maya. Sabloff sets out his `story' to combine history, theory, methods and

fieldwork and best describes the text in his own preface, an "attempt to explain how

early archaeologists arrived at the `traditional model' of ancient Maya civilization that

was popular in the first half of the century and how fieldwork has given birth to new

discoveries of the Maya." (Sabloff, preface). The text is broken down into six chapters

and in each chapter he uses subheadings to organize his interpretation of the

information and to reveal an accurate knowledge of Maya studies.

Using Maya archaeology as an extended study, Sabloff uses relevant sites

during specific time periods as case studies to examine the area he wishes to describe

to his reader.

The first chapter is entitled `Growth of Modern Scientific Archaeology',almost

beginning were the preface left on in terms of what Sabloff views as the `traditional

model' of early Maya archaeology. This begins with the idea of what stream of

questions the archaeologist should ask. In the `traditional model', Sabloff shows that

the `what' and `where' questions of the past are no longer as relevant as the newly

replaced `why' and `how' shift. It is in this chapter that Sabloff introduces the first of

many different scholars to emphasize each section. Schiffer and Binford are discussed

as well as one of their more popular methodological issues of the past, linked cultural

activities.

The next two chapters give the reader a contrast with the `traditional model' of

ancient civilization and new views of the classic period. With these topics, Sabloff

refers to the findings of Morley and Thompson in chapter two and Willey and

Proskouriakoff in the following section. The way he introduces these scholars is one of

respect. Sabloff does not bash the early ideas of archaeologists (knowing now that the

information is not thorough), he describes their work prior to the archaeological

revolution as successful and that many of their ideas were not wrong, just not

developed enough. With regards to the later of the four scholars, Sabloff explains

Proskouriakoff's remarkable findings from the Usumacinta River sites of Piedras and

Yaxchilan and the breakthrough idea that Maya texts record history. What Sabloff

seems to stress is that with each decade, the scholars and the information they have

gathered help the next generation of archaeologists in their quest to better understand

Maya civilization.

Chapter four evaluates new views of the Pre-classic and Post-classic period.

Sabloff introduces specific case studies such as the areas of Chichen Itza and

Cozumel. By focusing in on these areas, Sabloff is able to convey to his reader an

understanding of what archaeology can accomplish.

The remaining two chapters analyze the emergence of a new model and takes a

look at archaeology under this new modern world. Sabloff highlights the scholars

Webster and Gonlin and their research on the emergence of more distant rural

areas among the Maya subareas.

With each chapter, Sabloff gives the reader a new finding in terms of Maya

civilization. He frequently looks for parallels between ourselves and the Maya which

make this civilization even more real and exciting to the reader. The `story' concludes

with Sabloff asking questions to the reader, and having read the book, the questions

encompass so much information in only a few lines. Sabloff leaves the reader thinking

as well as feeling confident enough to ponder the questions himself.

After the final word has been read, there are ten pages of further readings listed

by chapter, which include everyone mentioned in the book and then some.

`The New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya' is lavishly illustrated with

photographs, site plans and maps all of which are in colour. All of these visual aids in

conjunction with the accurate read, help to summerize this complicated subject with

success. Sabloff hits his target perfectly with how he feels this story should be told,

his story is "to understand the development of a past culture, not find lost arks".

The cultural biases of the early archaeoligts now explain many of the 'facts' put forward in early books on this subject. Acutally many of these 'facts' were just guesses, but because they were put forward by prominent people they were taken on face value. Much of the work, especially since the 1960's has disproved or changed out of recognition these early 'facts'.

The last overview book on the Maya I read had them as peace loving people in lovely cities in the jungle, who just "gave it all up for no decent reason". This book completly changed my view on that. It made me realise on how slim a foundation many of the earlier works lay.

I'd reccomend this book to anybody who wants to know how much archaeology has changed - and why what these people have discovered is not only in the past, but also has a bearing on us today..

Lance Olsen Montana