The Founders of America

By Francis Jennings

Book Overview

Jennings describes the experience of the first pioneers of the North American continent, who migrated from Siberia across what is now Beringia--nomadic people who traveled over the continents and islands of the Americas, establishing networks of trails and trade and adapting the land to human purposes. He tells of the rise of imperial city states in Mexico and Peru, and of the extension of cultures from Mexico into North America; he describes the multitude of cultures and societies created by the Native Americans, from simple kin-structured bands to immense and complex cities. Jennings shows that Europeans did not discover America; they invaded it and conquered its population. We grew up on history written from the point of view of the victor. Here now is the rest of the story, by the acknowledged dean of American Indian history. It is strong, eye-opening, and timely.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393312321
• ISBN13: 9780393312324
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 458 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Solid History of Native Americans

The myth persists that natives were savages and uncivilized. Little is told in schools how they were conquered and eradicated. They lived here for 30 millennia only to be effectively wiped out. No, they weren't perfect, and not all settlers and explorers were tyrants, but Jennings' book sets history straight. Part of the myth arose from what early settlers found: The natives had been devastated by disease. Their existence destroyed and a shadow of what it once was. This gave rise to myths that these savages couldn't have built cities, Cahokia and the like, and were never much more than cavemen. People like the Mormons built their religion on these myths. History usually rectifies myths, if not slowly, and Jennings is a must read for those interested in American history, espeically pre-U.S. (though he follows the native story to the early 1990s). Perhaps he focuses too much on the negatives, but normally this history is completely ignored. We need to learn form the past and not forget who this continent once belonged to. We didn't discover it, they did. See also 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mound Builders and A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America.