Native American History

Informationen zum Autor Judith Nies Klappentext A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY: A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF ITS PLACE ON THE WORLD STAGE. Native American History is a breakthrough reference guide, the first book of its kind to recognize and explore the rich, unfolding experiences of the indigenous American peoples as they evolved against a global backdrop. This fascinating historical narrative, presented in an illuminating and thought-provoking time-line format, sheds light on such events as: * The construction of pyramids--not only on the banks of the Nile but also on the banks of the Mississippi * The development of agriculture in both Mesopotamia and Mexico * The European discovery of a continent already inhabited by some 50 million people * The Native American influence on the ideas of the European Renaissance * The unacknowledged advancements in science and medicine created by the civilizations of the new world * Western Expansion and its impact on Native American land and traditions * The key contributions Native Americans brought to the Allied victory of World War II And much more! This invaluable history takes an important first step toward a true understanding of the depth, breadth, and scope of a long-neglected aspect of our heritage.INTRODUCTION   History is context. We choose our history by selecting certain events to include in the narrative. Those events take their meaning in relation to other events. And these narratives make up the myths of our culture—myths that are changing all the time. My idea for a chronology of Native American history grew out of the paradigm shift that resulted from the quincentenary celebration of Columbus’s arrival in the western hemisphere in 1492. Like many people expecting a lively celebration of Columbus’s heroism, courage, and mythic vision, my imagination was captured instead by the “view from the shore.” The point of view presented by indigenous peoples was one of great native contributions and great European injustices. Their perspective changed the narrative of time and challenged the conventional myths of the Americas.   In colorful contradiction to centuries of national Columbus holidays and mainstream history texts, indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere launched demonstrations to publicize the historical reality of the Arawak Indians and Columbus’s genocidal search for gold. At the time Columbus landed on the island he dubbed Hispaniola in 1492 there were an estimated 30 million people in Mexico and the Caribbean Islands (Columbus’s brother counted over one million male inhabitants in the Dominican Republic in the census he conducted to determine how many adult males should be bringing in gold for tribute) and another estimated 50 million in the U.S., Canada, and South America, many of whom lived in highly complex cultures with sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, agriculture, metalworking, weaving, geography, measurement of time.   America has been notably uninterested in the people who lived here before the European invasions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the year A.D. 750, when London was still historically insignificant, the sixth-largest city in the world (including Constantinople and Alexandria) was Teotihuacán in the Mexico Valley, near what today is Mexico City. In the year 800 the Hohokam were irrigating the land that today is Phoenix and building seven-story apartment buildings at the same time the former barbarian Charlemagne was being crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (which, to quote Voltaire, was neither holy nor Roman). The largest pyramid outside of Egypt was (and can still be seen today) in Cahokia, Illinois, near the confluence of the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers, a remnant of the great Mississippian civilization. The Mississippians left thousands of temple mounds and geometric earthworks along the lands of the Mississi...

Product details

• Authors: Judith Nies
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.12.1996
• EAN: 9780345393500
• ISBN: 978-0-345-39350-0
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 210 mm x 25 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Dictionaries, reference works > Miscellaneous