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nicolaspratt's review
4.0
A must-read for anyone interested in Mayan archaeology, or the people of Guatemala-Yucatan. Carlsen does wax lengthy on certain characters, but the overall picture he paints brings the often-dry historical events to life. Since reading (via audiobook) I have made an effort to look up the sketches and photos that Carlsen references, which I highly recommend to anyone not reading the physical book with physical images.
bridge_to_bookland's review
2.0
It was so boring. I was hopeful after reading the introduction, but it didn’t take long to lose me after that…I really wanted to like it, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
What a phenomenal book. Carlsen traces the lives of the two men who, while not the first to discover the Mayan ruins, but were the first to see the sites for what they were: an indigenous civilization. John L. Stephens was an accomplished writer and enthusiastic traveler. In addition, the profuse illustrations by Frederick Catherwood were so accurate they can be used by researchers today. Their story is remarkable.
This isn't a small book, but it never lagged or skimped on detail. I came into the book interested primarily in the ruins themselves, but I loved the detail of the revolutions, the pursuit of passage through South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the early lives of Stephens and Catherwood.
This isn't a small book, but it never lagged or skimped on detail. I came into the book interested primarily in the ruins themselves, but I loved the detail of the revolutions, the pursuit of passage through South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the early lives of Stephens and Catherwood.
heatherbirchall's review
4.0
Brilliant find in a Free Library! I knew nothing at all about the Mayan civilization and I definitely know all I will ever need to now. The only disappointing thing perhaps is the the author often referred to the indigenous people in central and south American as "Indian". I also wanted to know the best places to see Mayan artifacts. Although a lot of what Catherwood and Stephens brought back were sadly destroyed in a fire, there must be plenty of other remains that ended up in museums. I also wondered if Catherwood felt threatened at all by photography. He was such an incredible artist but this new technology undoubtedly would have made him wonder if it was worth his while sketching for hours when he could take a picture, albeit one that was cumbersome and dangerous to make. Anyway, this was truly a great read - narrative nonfiction at its best.
benfast's review against another edition
3.0
This was a bit hard to follow on audiobook. It was also a lot more about the two people and their life in general rather than their discoveries of "lost" civilizations (a lot of the book talks about how many of the sites were not lost but owned by locals or previously discovered by Spaniards who had hidden records but that even those records had been re-discovered around this point...). Still, some interesting parts and a lot of classic "wow colonial attitudes were stupid" moments.
lauren_endnotes's review
• JUNGLE OF STONE: The True Story or Twos Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen, 2016.
#ReadtheWorld21
#ReadtheWorld21
amarj33t_5ingh's review
5.0
One of the few books I have read twice, 'Jungle of Stone' is a brilliant exposition of the archaeologists who finally unearthed the full historicity of the Mayan civilization from its jungle slumber and opened the Mesoamerican past to future generations of intellectuals.