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jamietr's review
I'd been meaning to read a couple of Craig Childs's books and with a short block of time to fill, I decided on this one first. The book focuses on human migration over the Bering land bridge tens of thousands of years ago. Childs travels along the path of the migration, often with his family, describing their adventures, while talking with experts in the field, and recreating scenes of what life was like for these people.
The book reminded me of [a:John McPhee|40|John McPhee|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235861988p2/40.jpg]'s [b:Basin and Range|19894|Basin and Range|John McPhee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388755256s/19894.jpg|1665814] (part of his Annals of the Former World series). McPhee crossed the country with experts in geology, trying to understand how the continent was shaped. Childs does something similar, following the path of migration, looking at fossils, sites of ancient hunts, studying stone spears and scratches on bones, trying to recreate what life was like ten thousand years ago. Childs effort comes across as more mainstream than McPhee's (not a bad thing!).
For me the best parts of the book were the passages describing what life was like for people who lived alongside mammoths, dire wolves, massive bears, and how they first survived, and then conquered their environment.
The book reminded me of [a:John McPhee|40|John McPhee|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235861988p2/40.jpg]'s [b:Basin and Range|19894|Basin and Range|John McPhee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388755256s/19894.jpg|1665814] (part of his Annals of the Former World series). McPhee crossed the country with experts in geology, trying to understand how the continent was shaped. Childs does something similar, following the path of migration, looking at fossils, sites of ancient hunts, studying stone spears and scratches on bones, trying to recreate what life was like ten thousand years ago. Childs effort comes across as more mainstream than McPhee's (not a bad thing!).
For me the best parts of the book were the passages describing what life was like for people who lived alongside mammoths, dire wolves, massive bears, and how they first survived, and then conquered their environment.
squirrelfish's review against another edition
4.0
Lifelike descriptions of extinct creatures and long gone ecosystems are rather lovely and enjoyable. He combines them with his real life adventure travel experiences, anthropological data on hunter-gatherers and archaeological evidence to discuss what ancient North America might have been like. How fast could a band of hunter gatherers migrate the whole west coast of the Americas? Somewhere between 2 and 2000 years. Tales of his adventure travels - ocean kayaking and cross glacial expeditions in Alaska, backpacking in Nevada, playing bison in the sand dunes of New Mexico, kayaking the swamps of the South - are nicely interspersed with an analysis of the inhabitants that would have lived in the area during the last ice age. He describes what we know from stone tools and bones of both the human and animal inhabitants of the country. He describes the various migration theories, and the evidence, and discusses possible reasons for these patterns with an open acknowledgement of how little we know about these ancestors. He describes historic megafauna as if they are present, and the territory in which they lived. He describes the groups he travels with, who is exploring where and how, and whether perhaps there's a genetic drive to adventure - and uses all these modern people as a lens to examine the first Americans.
He narrates the audiobook well and it's overall a fun book - gotten from the SF Public Library and the Libby app for Android.
He narrates the audiobook well and it's overall a fun book - gotten from the SF Public Library and the Libby app for Android.
biscuithead's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Listened on audio. I found a lot of the facts interesting just got tired of it about 60% of the way through.
pearseanderson's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
Not at all the book I expected, as it combines travelogue with natural history, but overall a really entertaining and powerful read. Not sure how much I'll remember later on, but I felt a lot about objects like arrowheads and boats.
seullywillikers's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Wow, this has been a wonderful reading experience. Part travelogue/memoir, part scientific paper, part thought experiment, this author explains the evidence showing early humans' movement into and across the Americas, but to explain it like that sells it short. Using elegant prose the author expresses his imaginings, what did these early humans see, hear, smell, and feel? What motivated them? But, even that doesn't explain the book. The author creates a nostalgia (I'm not sure if that's the right word, but I can't think of anything else right now) for understanding our past and builds up a responsibility toward the future. He evokes connections for all people to the peoples of the past, the human ancestor. He imagines himself standing in the past, he constantly thinks about what and what may have stood where he is standing, and who and what will stand there after. He thinks about time and the links between everything, honoring the journeys of all those who have come before.
One of the things that really struck me was the author pointing out how inherently colonialist the English language is, and that to discuss the early humans' expansion into America is to automatically use colonialist language that is harmful to Native Americans.
You can tell the author has a deep love for nature, and ultimately for humanity. 10/10 I recommend this book.
One of the things that really struck me was the author pointing out how inherently colonialist the English language is, and that to discuss the early humans' expansion into America is to automatically use colonialist language that is harmful to Native Americans.
You can tell the author has a deep love for nature, and ultimately for humanity. 10/10 I recommend this book.