[.ca] Atlantis in America: Navigators of the Ancient World (ISBN 0932813526)

too much ranting:
The authors kept on giving the same speech over and over again about the academic establishment. The constant ranting should have been handled once in the intro and then the authors should have gone on and made there point. It's to bad because when the authors actually focus on there interesting theory they have a potentually good book unfortunately they love to give there speech to much.

Surprisingly good:
I picked this book up not expecting much. I have been reading all kinds of books on the subject of ancient civilizations. While I tend to agree that the authors tend to stick it to the establishment it bit too much, they fact is they probably deserve it and then some. After reading this book I'm convinced and I now almost find it hard to believe people consider any other location for the "mythical" Atlantis other than Central America. Of course, the authors explain why the other proposed locations of Atlantis are more popular. I, for one, thing that people don't want to find Atlantis. If you look in the wrong places, you won't find it and you can keep having fun looking for it. In any case, this book was uncommonly reasonable and well thought out. Forget the spelling errors and repeated stabs at that status quo--this book is an important read.

Revealing:
Atlantis In America reveals much more than just information on the probable location of Atlantis. It demonstrates scientifically how ancient cultures interacted through trade and migration. Its evidence that Chinese and African peoples were well established in Central America centuries before Columbus is particularly compelling!

Flawed, Yet Serviceable:
I'm a sucker for "Pre-Ice Age Civilizations" books, and have been ever since discovering Graham Hancock. I think the idea is just incredibly cool, especially since there's more and more evidence surfacing that the idea isn't just a glean in a madman's eye. And, so, when I found this book in a used bookstore, I figured I'd make up the difference in my trade-ins with it. Well, this is okay. Not great (like, say, Graham Hancock's Underworld), but okay. Why? The authors kind of turned me off with their railing at the Inquisition and how the Roman Catholic Church purposefully molded the views of Western Civilization. They write in such a way that I continually expect the next sentence to say "...and I believe the Church knew and surpressed this information!", but they don't, possibly because they'd have no way of proving that. Also, the authors are guilty of a crime of which they accuse mainstream archaeologists: Drawing conclusions on too little evidence. They state that the pre-Deluge Atlantis was a place of peace and contentment, and that the fact that the Mayan and Aztec cities weren't walled proved this. Actually, that just proves they didn't have walls; the Maya and (especially) the Aztec are known to have practiced limited and ritualistic warfare, and it'd be folly to assume that was just an invention of the Aztec. However, the authors state as much. Also, we know that violence is intrinsic to human nature, so unless Atlantis and its colonies *and* those cultures it came in contact with were all fabulously wealthy, someone would've been fighting someone. Finally, they get entirely too worked up about the supposed ancient Bronze Age trade routes across the Atlantic, and shipping tin and copper to the Mediterranean. Contrary to what they say, copper and tin are not THAT rare in the Mediterranean hinterlands. Were the Native Americans exporting copper and tin to the Phoenicians, SURELY they would have made tools out of it, as it's demonstrably superior to using stone tools in most cases. That they didn't suggests their trade theory is a bit overblown. Even if the Phoenicians were only trading for the raw materials, surely the Natives would've been suspicious of what these could be used for! Don't get me wrong; it's a nice fun book, and they do bring a lot of reasonably hard data (mostly in the form of stone navigational aids and archaeological dating), but they rely entirely too much on supposition to get more than 3 stars.

Atlantis in America: Navigators of the Ancient World:
This is the best summer reading I've had in years. Forget the old stories about Atlantis, this book is an excellent resource for proof of transatlantic travel in ancient times. It is scholarly and meticulously researched. There is nothing sensational here, the authors do a fine job in connecting various ancient cultures. Great for research purposes.