History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History

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Ancient Mexico and Central America: Archaeology and Culture History
Susan Toby Evans
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500284407

Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life (Civilization of the American Indian Series)

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Crazy about the book.
Not what I expected
Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life (Civilization of the American Indian)
Satisfying insights not to be found elsewhere.

Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life (Civilization of the American Indian Series)
Kingsley M. Bray
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0806137851

Book Description

Crazy Horse was as much feared by tribal foes as he was honored by allies. His war record was unmatched by any of his peers, and his rout of Custer at the Little Bighorn reverberates through history. Yet so much about him is unknown or steeped in legend.

Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life corrects older, idealized accounts--and draws on a greater variety of sources than other recent biographies--to expose the real Crazy Horse: not the brash Sioux warrior we have come to expect but a modest, reflective man whose courage was anchored in Lakota piety. Kingsley M. Bray has plumbed interviews of Crazy Horse's contemporaries and consulted modern Lakotas to fill in vital details of Crazy Horse's inner and public life.

Bray places Crazy Horse within the rich context of the nineteenth-century Lakota world. He reassesses the war chief's achievements in numerous battles and retraces the tragic sequence of misunderstandings, betrayals, and misjudgments that led to his death. Bray also explores the private tragedies that marred Crazy Horse's childhood and the network of relationships that shaped his adult life.

To this day, Crazy Horse remains a compelling symbol of resistance for modern Lakotas. Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life is a singular achievement, scholarly and authoritative, offering a complete portrait of the man and a fuller understanding of his place in American Indian and United States history.

Customer Reviews:

Crazy about the book........2007-02-22

A thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully written and informative true story.
This book opened my eyes to the life and times of not only the Lakota Indians but to the hardships of the Native Americans in general.

A worthy first book by Kingsley Bray and I patiently wait for his next.

Not what I expected.......2007-01-04

As of this writing I have completed the first four chapters but wanted to put down my initial impressions. Sadly, I am somewhat disappointed. I was expecting the text to contain an analytical study of the life and times of Crazy Horse in which the author presented multiple views and reminiscences relating to Crazy Horse and tried to arrive at a reasonable conclusion. However, what the author has done is present unsubstantiated details as facts in the text and even tries to tell us what Crazy Horse was thinking during certain events. How can he know this? This is really what Mari Sandoz did, but updated with a lot more details added to the story.

Another example is in chapter 4. Bray supplies a quote and declares the speaker to be Man Afraid of His Horse. But in the footnote at the end of the book, he states that the quote came from an unidentified speaker, but in his opinion, it was Man Afraid. My opinion is, he should have written the words "perhaps spoken by Man Afraid of His Horse" in the text of the book. As it is, others will now quote Bray and follow his lead, until the speaker becomes Man Afraid in future books, with the "perhaps" being all but forgotten. Maybe I'm too sensitive to this, but it irks me.

Overall, this book is fun to read, but has not, at this point, met my expectations.

Update--
I have now finished the first 8 chapters.

At the close of chapter 6 Bray makes it clear he is suffering from hero worship when he writes: The career of the Lakota people's greatest warrior had begun.

Perhaps "one of the greatest" would have been more realistic.

On page 77 he states that the Lakota declared "open war" on the Americans [1864]. He goes on to state that it was a "major offensive." Further down the page we find that this "open war" and "major offensive" never amounted too much more than stealing stock and killing an occasional straggler. He should have put this entire episode into better perspective and pointed out that despite the big talk, their initiative was rather lacking and uncoordinated.

On p. 78 he states that the emigrants and militia were "trigger-happy." Well, after reading the preceding pages and understanding the danger then existing, this "negative" [as the author presents it] comes across as perfectly understandable. You'd have been "trigger-happy" too, under the same conditions, not knowing who was friend and who was foe.

Based on the above examples, Mr. Bray appears to be losing all objectivity. And considering the amount of work that he put into this book it is really too bad. I don't mean to sound too harsh. But this manuscript could have used some more editing and critiquing.

01-16-07
I have now finished the first 10 chapters. Bray likes to write things like "Crazy Horse's warriors," without explaining how he knows this. On pp. 113-114 he provides a quote by Louis Simonin (The Rocky Mountain West in 1867) and CREATES a scenario that involves Crazy Horse and Man Afraid of His Horse. He is certainly reading into it, as the original mentions neither man. This is called creative writing and there is LOTS OF IT in this book.

Another MAJOR complaint about this book is the author's failure to provide a chart to help the reader keep track of all the bands, leaders, and their relation to one another. It is almost impossible to follow unless you start writing it down yourself at the beginning. This is a major distraction. He just keeps throwing names (both bands and people) at the reader like it was nothing.

This book could have been a masterpiece and the last word on Crazy Horse. I think Bray should go back and rework the book.
A more appropriate title for this book is "Speculations on the Life of Crazy Horse."

2-1-07
I am not commenting on every detail of this book. But I frequently spot-check footnotes for accuracy. This exmaple is typical of this book and why this book crosses the line of history and novel (which is not how it is marketed): On p. 220 Bray quotes John G. Bourke (author of On the Border with Crook). Bourke, p. 415 (Bison Book edition), relates a very brief story about Crazy Horse and his participation in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Bray takes this story and places it at a precise point in the battle and even supplies the scenario in which it occurred. None of this is alluded to in Bourke's account. Bray takes constant liberties with his source material. Creative, sure...but is it history or one man's imagination? This is very dangerous from an historical perspective. If this book was presented as a novel, it would be a great one and get 5 stars. But as it is, I can only give it 2.5 to 3. And the book is not user friendly. I don't like having to keep flipping to the back to read the footnotes. And I find all the Lakota political goings on quite impossible to follow. It actually comes off as rather snobbish.

3-1-07
It took a long time, but I finally finished this book. Bray is consistently overly wordy and this book could have been 100 pages shorter. Many of his paragraphs could have been condensed. Overall, it was a lousy editing job, assuming the book was read/edited at all.

Also, for some reason Bray fails to speak about why Crazy Horse was so obessesed with going on a buffalo hunt once on the reservation, as if this would set everything right in his life. It wasn't so important for the other leaders and headmen, but for Crazy Horse this was of MAJOR importance. Everything was riding on it. Bray fails to attempt to analyze this very obvious topic. Also, towards the end of the book there is a footnote where he says to see an old Chicago newspaper account for alternative details to Crazy Horse's death, as if this is such a simple thing to do. In a book that is already too long with repetitive sentence structure that only serves to bog down the reader, would it have mattered to include this bit of useful information?

Having said all that, this is the best book currently available on Crazy Horse, it's just not the best book that could have been written. Unfortunately, it will probably be a long time, if ever, that someone attempts to do this again.

Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life (Civilization of the American Indian).......2007-01-04

Worth the read for those who want depth on this subject. I would term it more a political history of the Great Sioux Nation than a biography of Crazy Horse although he is the central figure. Mr. Bray's research deserves great respect and reflects years of work. But the conclusions he reached from that research should be regarded as one perspective, and not the final word on the subject. There are some great differences of opinion in Indian Country on the genealogy presented here. Having said that, in terms of grasping an understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Satisfying insights not to be found elsewhere........2006-12-12

CRAZY HORSE: A LAKOTA LIFE provides a fine survey of the famous leader who has become an icon of Native resistance. What is less known is that he was feared by tribal foes as he was honored by his friends: this survey corrects idealizations of his nature and life and uses a rang of sources outside of the usual biographical world to reveal his personality. These other sources were interviews of his contemporaries and modern Lakotans alike, and provide satisfying insights not to be found elsewhere.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Indians in Unexpected Places (Cultureamerica)

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one of the best and most 'unexpected' books about the American indigenous experience.....

Indians in Unexpected Places (Cultureamerica)
Philip J. Deloria
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0700614591

Book Description

Despite the passage of time, our vision of Native Americans remains locked up within powerful stereotypes. That's why some images of Indians can be so unexpected and disorienting: What is Geronimo doing sitting in a Cadillac? Why is an Indian woman in beaded buckskin sitting under a salon hairdryer? Such images startle and challenge our outdated visions, even as the latter continue to dominate relations between Native and non-Native Americans.

Philip Deloria explores this cultural discordance to show how stereotypes and Indian experiences have competed for ascendancy in the wake of the military conquest of Native America and the nation's subsequent embrace of Native "authenticity." Rewriting the story of the national encounter with modernity, Deloria provides revealing accounts of Indians doing unexpected things-singing opera, driving cars, acting in Hollywood-in ways that suggest new directions for American Indian history.

Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries-a time when, according to most standard American narratives, Indian people almost dropped out of history itself-Deloria argues that a great many Indians engaged the very same forces of modernization that were leading non-Indians to reevaluate their own under-standings of themselves and their society. He examines longstanding stereotypes of Indians as invariably violent, suggesting that even as such views continued in American popular culture, they were also transformed by the violence at Wounded Knee. He tells how Indians came to represent themselves in Wild West shows and Hollywood films and also examines sports, music, and even Indian people's use of the automobile-an ironic counterpoint to today's highways teeming with Dakota pick-ups and Cherokee sport utility vehicles.

Throughout, Deloria shows us anomalies that resist pigeonholing and force us to rethink familiar expectations. Whether considering the Hollywood films of James Young Deer or the Hall of Fame baseball career of pitcher Charles Albert Bender, he persuasively demonstrates that a significant number of Indian people engaged in modernity-and helped shape its anxieties and its textures-at the very moment they were being defined as "primitive."

These "secret histories," Deloria suggests, compel us to reconsider our own current expectations about what Indian people should be, how they should act, and even what they should look like. More important, he shows how such seemingly harmless (even if unconscious) expectations contribute to the racism and injustice that still haunt the experience of many Native American people today.

This book is part of the CultureAmerica series.

Customer Reviews:

one of the best and most 'unexpected' books about the American indigenous experience............2007-10-07

I am familiar with the works of the late American Indian author of twenty books (including Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto), theologian, historian, and activist, Vine Deloria, Jr. I was less familiar with his son, Phillip J. Deloria, a history professor and director of the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan. The title of this piece and eye-catching mural-esque book cover (of four native people in a Model T, in full regalia, looking outward at the cow-spotted plains) immediately caught my attention.

What are these "unexpected" places that Phillip Deloria was referring to? They include early cinema, athletics, technology and music. What's more, he gives us new insight into the background of the Battle of Wounded Knee and other tragic chapters in Native history that are either glossed over in historical texts or are decidedly one-ended. Deloria has a very clear writer's voice, and freely intersperses the personal anecdotes of his family's rich history (Deloria is of Sioux heritage) with archived photographs and amazing stories that encompass more than 100 years of Native accomplishment in cinema (with reference to pioneers in the industry who worked to challenge and break the stereotypical depiction of the animalistic Noble Savage and other typical roles often brought to screen, often with White people in wigs and "exotic" make-up, playing these characters), sports (baseball, football and track, just to name a few sports), technology (many photos of native families and Geronimo, himself, cruising around in some of the most popular automobiles from the early 20th century), and music (notable native composers, opera singers and ensembles).

I can't begin to tell you how much I learned after reading this book. Deloria manages to probe at the poignant and horrific historical events that proved so damaging to Native Americans throughout the United States, as well as provide warm and amusing insight into the great (and oftentimes overlooked) accomplishments of Native scholars, athletes and artists that are so worthy of acknowledgement. Read this book today. It will truly open your eyes.

Art of the Andes: From Chavin to Inca (World of Art)

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Balanced and Astute
Excellent historical overview of native Andean art.

Art of the Andes: From Chavin to Inca (World of Art)
Rebecca Stone-Miller
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500203636

Book Description

This wide-ranging survey has established itself as the best single-volume introduction to Andean art and architecture. Now fully revised, it describes the strikingly varied artistic achievements of the Chavín, Paracas, Moche, Chimú, and Inca cultures, among others. Their impressive cities, tall pyramids, shining goldwork, and intricate textiles constitute one of the greatest artistic traditions in history.

For the second edition, Rebecca Stone-Miller has added new material covering the earliest mummification in the world at Chinchorros, wonderful new Moche murals and architectural reconstructions, the latest finds from the Chachapoyas culture, and a greater emphasis on shamanism. Throughout, Stone-Miller demonstrates how the Andean peoples adapted and refined their aesthetic response to an extremely inhospitable environment. 185 illustrations, 35 in color.

Customer Reviews:

Balanced and Astute.......2004-07-08

This book stands out, among many others, for the quality of insight that Rebecca Stone-Miller brings to her study of Andean art. Not content with simple typology and iconography, her account is illuminated by the cultural constants - "duality, reciprocity, hierarchy, and embeddedness in nature" (p. 218) that she finds in the underlying Andean cultures. Art history, in these terms, becomes an exploration of meaning, both of the art that is produced and of the culture that produces it. It's rare to find so much insight in an introductory book; I highly recommend it.

Another strength of the book is the nicely-judged balance of attention that the author pays to the multitude of cultures (including the Chavin, Nasca, Moche, Wari, Tiwanaku, Chimu, and Inca, to name just some) that weave together into the Andean tapestry. The author also provides balanced coverage of all the arts -- metalwork, tapestry, featherwork, stone working, and architecture, in addition to the ever-popular ceramics (pottery).

With so much ground to cover, there are relatively few individual ceramic examples in the book; this unfortunately gives a too-restricted an idea of the range of form, beauty, and variety of Pre-Columbian pottery from South America. I recommend a book such as "Ceramics of Ancient Peru," by Christopher B. Donnan, as a supplement to Rebecca Stone-Miller's study.

A small number of errors have made it through the second edition. For example, the distance from Quito to Santiago is quoted as 3400 miles, rather than the correct 3400 kilometers. A bothersome number of specialized terms were left out of the index. A glossary would have been helpful, and one wishes that more of the photos had been printed in color rather than black and white.

In summary, "Art of the Andes" is a balanced and insightful survey that should appeal to a wide variety of readers. It's the kind of book that doesn't just sit on the shelf after one reading, but gets picked up again, thumbed through, and read more than once.

Excellent historical overview of native Andean art........2000-09-23

This is an excellent overview of native Andean artform the earliest perod through Chavin, Paracas, Nasca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari, to Incan. Covers architecture, textiles ,pottery and metallic arts. Looks at the main themes of religious and secular art in these various mediums. Text is accompanied by many black and white photographs, drawings and plans. Some photographs are in colour.

Book Description

One hundred members of NatChat, an electronic mail discussion group concerned with Native American issues, responded to the recent Disney release Pocahontas by calling on parents to boycott the movie, citing its historical inaccuracies and saying that "Disney has let us down in a cruel, irresponsible manner." Their anger was rooted in the fact that, although Disney claimed that the film's portrayal of American Indians would be "authentic," the Pocahontas story their movie told was really white cultural myth. The actual histories of the characters were replaced by mythic narratives depicting the crucial moments when aid was given to the white settlers. As reconstructed, the story serves to reassert for whites their right to be here, easing any lingering guilt about the displacement of the native inhabitants.

Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder

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Neither Wolf Nor Dog
Keepers of the Fire
Amazing Book!
A must read for America's Moral Compass
Awesome Read

Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder
Kent Nerburn
Manufacturer: New World Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1577312333

Book Description

In this 1996 Minnesota Book Award winner, Kent Nerburn draws the reader deep into the world of an Indian elder known only as Dan. It’s a world of Indian towns, white roadside cafes, and abandoned roads that swirl with the memories of the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull. Readers meet vivid characters like Jumbo, a 400-pound mechanic, and Annie, an 80-year-old Lakota woman living in a log cabin. Threading through the book is the story of two men struggling to find a common voice. Neither Wolf nor Dog takes readers to the heart of the Native American experience. As the story unfolds, Dan speaks eloquently on the difference between land and property, the power of silence, and the selling of sacred ceremonies. This edition features a new introduction by the author. “This is a sobering, humbling, cleansing, loving book, one that every American should read.” — Yoga Journal

Customer Reviews:

Neither Wolf Nor Dog.......2007-09-15

I can't really add anything more that hasn't already been said here. I just wanted to note that I too think this is a truly beautiful and very important book. I will carry it's message with me always.

Keepers of the Fire.......2007-08-11

There are many books by do-gooders claiming to advance the wisdom and worldliness of Native American elders, but such books tend to glamorize the mythical past and/or simplify belief systems through the eyes of an amazed know-it-all white person. Another side-effect of the American media's obsession with Native American history is that it ignores the people's modern travails while focusing on how noble and pure everything was before the white man arrived. In this generally outstanding book, Kent Nerburn tries to avoid these weaknesses of white-generated coverage of Indians, and is mostly (though not always) successful.

This book is based on Nerburn's very rocky and uncomfortable friendship with an old Lakota man named Dan, who has led a long life of hardship on the reservation while striving to preserve his tribe's culture and customs. Refreshingly, Dan and Nerburn quickly dispense with historical myths and focus on where Indians stand in the present, with modern social problems combined with a need to understand a history far more painful and destructive than even the most sympathetic White Americans could imagine. Nerburn cannot always avoid sappy cultural ruminations and Dan is not always a likable person - but this all works to the book's advantage because both are revealed as complex humans with realistic strengths and weaknesses. The text occasionally gets uncomfortable as Dan delivers hard-hitting soliloquies on the continuing differences in the worldviews of the two peoples, but his opinions on matters of history and culture can be highly illuminating, as are Nerburn's struggles to understand without becoming the type of exploitative writer that he loathes. In the end, this is an extremely thought-provoking book and is essential for anyone interested in the culture of Native Americans - yesterday and today. [~doomsdayer520~]

Amazing Book!.......2007-05-15

I am in the process of reading this book for the third time, and it still catches and holds me like very few other books can. If you are a reader interested in obtaining a dramatic and unadulterated view of America through the eyes of those who lived here prior to the European invasion, this book will give that to you. If you want a viewpoint beyond the white-written history books, in which battles won by Indians are "massacres" and battles won by whites are "victories," this is the book for you. After all, this was a country in which people and societies existed before Christopher Columbus showed up. I will warn you to be prepared; you will never view "American" history in the same manner again!

A must read for America's Moral Compass.......2007-01-04

A fantastic, insight into a reality we share with native americans - Our country and lands, democracy, religion expanded just behind our destruction and sanctioned genocide of the American Indian. A gripping reminder that 150 years, in the collective memory of a people,is but a blink of an eye and that this struggle that most White Americans relegate to old hisotry is still well alive for Native Americans. This history,our own history, if held to contemporary american moral compass would be the cause of great outrage. As I read I found my patriotism humbled by they hyprocracy of our own history. And yet, the message of the book also faces the reality of the past and looks to a better future both for Native and White Americans. Simply a great read and great insight.

Awesome Read.......2006-11-21

This book was very deep and realistic. Few books have I read twice - this was one of them. I applaud the author - Nerburn. Reading this book was a gift. Thank you for taking on this project.

The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Institute of Early American History & Culture)

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Very useful work on the Iroquois Confederacy
The Masterpiece

The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Institute of Early American History & Culture)
Daniel K. Richter
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807843946

Book Description

Richter examines a wide range of primary documents to survey the responses of the peoples of the Iroquois League—the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras—to the challenges of the European colonialization of North America. He demonstrates that by the early eighteenth century a series of creative adaptations in politics and diplomacy allowed the peoples of the Longhouse to preserve their cultural autonomy in a land now dominated by foreign powers.

Customer Reviews:

Very useful work on the Iroquois Confederacy.......2007-02-14

I've found this book to be both insightful and easy to understand. Though this is a well researched and referenced academic text it is accessible to the average reader, assuming an interest in the subject matter.

The Iroquois were a centerpiece of North American colonial life and I would highly suggest this book for those interested in History or Anthropology, as Dr. Richter takes broad approach to his analysis and documents cultural practices and history of interest to many disciplines.

The Masterpiece.......2000-06-28

Daniel Richter, in this astonishing book, does an excellent job explaining social, political and economical aspects of the Iroquois people with strong evidence. This book is a resutl of a big reserach and Richter's dedication to the subject. I would recommend this book not only to students who need to take Native American History, but also to anyone who is interested in learning about the Iroquoi's life and their impacts on the French, the England, and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries. Even though i am not a native speaker, i really enjoyed reading this book because of Richter's plain English.

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Timeless Classic
Ghostly Reminders
Refreshing challenge to mainstream ways of knowing
horrid
Black Elk Speaks

Black Elk Speaks
John G. Neihardt
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0803283857

Book Description

Black Elk Speaks is the story of the Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during the momentous twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk met the distinguished poet, writer, and critic John G. Neihardt (1881–1973) in 1930 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and chose Neihardt to tell his story. Neihardt understood and conveyed Black Elk’s experiences in this powerful and inspirational message for all humankind.

When Black Elk received his great vision, white settlers were invading the Lakotas’ homeland, decimating buffalo herds, and threatening to extinguish the Lakotas’ way of life. The Lakotas fought fiercely to retain their freedom and way of life, a dogged resistance that resulted in a remarkable victory at the Little Bighorn and an unspeakable tragedy at Wounded Knee. Black Elk Speaks offers much more than a precious glimpse of a vanished time, however. As related by Neihardt, Black Elk’s searing visions of the unity of humanity and the earth have made this book a venerated spiritual classic. Whether appreciated as the poignant tale of a Lakota life, a history of a Native nation, or an enduring spiritual testament, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable.

This new edition features two additional essays by John G. Neihardt that further illuminate his experience with Black Elk; an essay by Alexis Petri, great-granddaughter of John G. Neihardt, that celebrates Neihardt’s remarkable accomplishments; and a look at the legacy of the special relationship between Neihardt and Black Elk, written by Lori Utecht, editor of Knowledge and Opinion: Essays and Literary Criticism of John G. Neihardt.

For more information on John G. Neihardt, visit www.neihardt.com

Customer Reviews:

Timeless Classic.......2007-10-06

Black Elk Speaks is a 1932 autobiography of an Oglala Sioux medicine man as told to John Neihardt.

In the summer of 1930, as part of his research into the Native American perspective on the Ghost Dance movement, Neihardt contacted an Oglala holy man named Black Elk, who had been present as a young man at the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn and the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. As Neihardt tells the story, Black Elk gave him the gift of his life's narrative, including the visions he had had and some of the Oglala rituals he had performed. The two men developed a close friendship. The book Black Elk Speaks, grew from their conversations continuing in the spring of 1931, and is now Neihardt's most familiar work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Elk_Speaks

Ghostly Reminders.......2007-09-17

As I recall, it was one of those hot, smoggy summer days in LA. We were sitting on a park bench in the shade. The park was one of those anonymous lttle collections of half-watered, half-dead grassy spots that dot the LA sprawl. Present were Manuel, his wife Vera chief of what was left of the Huhumonga tribe (Gabrielino, in Spanish), and several of us white activists. We were all working to preserve the remaining sage scrub beds (a sacred plant to Western tribes) from San Bernardino area developers. Now, Manuel, as long as I had known him, was a mild-mannered man, content to let Vera make decisions for those Gabrielinos still active in tribal affairs. Maybe, it was the summer heat or the unruly kids playing nearby, I don't know. But suddenly Manuel jumped from the bench, strode over to the several families with the kids, and in a stern and steady voice proceeded to remind them that all the land upon which they now walked and drove had once belonged to his people who had peaceably roamed the land. A moment later, he returned, and we resumed without comment. But I've never forgotten that moment, not because it was embarrassing for Manuel or for the bewildered families who had no idea who he was, but for what it demonstrated to me. That even in the middle of one of America's great cities, having long ago replaced the vast beds of coastal sage and peaceable people, there remain ghostly encounters with a very real pre-European past.

And that's the sort of glimpse Black Elk Speaks provides in wonderful detail. The past comes alive through the proverbial eyes of a revered man whose people have been overly villified or overly romanticized, but rarely portrayed in all their human complexity. Black Elk, I think, manages the complexity as he recounts experiences from boyhood through young adulthood. From the poetically practical names of people and months, eg. Moon of the Grass Appearing (April), to the migrations across traditional lands, to the historic battles with the Wasichus (white men), to the Ogalalas' end at Wounded Knee, the reader is immersed in a strange and vanished culture. It's said in the notes that the Indian Black Elk and the white man John Neihardt possessed something of a common spirit that communicated across racial and linguistic barriers. As it reads, the seamlessly flowing narrative demonstrates something of a communal overlap, a kind of deeper commonality. The book's centerpiece revolves around the nine year-old Black Elk's Great Vision, recounted here in all its colorful and lyrical detail. Whatever the prophetic value, the strength of Black Elk's Vision clearly guided and infused him for the remainder of his life, and provides a powerful potrait of another people's wishes and dreams.

Frankly, I've never put much stock in the metaphysics of visions, whether of the white man's Biblical variety or the Native American's pantheistc kind. But I have to confess that when I compare America's great national vision of Manifest Destiny with Black Elk's, I much prefer the latter. It's certainly more poetic and a lot less threatening to the planet. Something like that, I believe, is where the real value of looking at the world through the eyes of others lies. Perhaps it's the best way for a skeptic like me to expand his own consciousness, and share a vanished time and place as I did for a brief moment on that long ago park bench.

Refreshing challenge to mainstream ways of knowing.......2007-08-22

This book is quite difficult to read on many levels - but the challenge it presents to mainstream, American readers is worth stretching one's mind to encompass.

As with any written account of an oral presentation, it often seems as if it lacks polish. But its directness is part of its art. It is not a story told to entertain. It is a recounting of an important story and a vision unfulfilled, a factor that puzzles the sympathetic reader as much as it seemed to grieve Black Elk himself.

The value to many readers lies in hearing a different point of view no only on history but also on valid ways of knowing and thinking. As a counterpoint to European epistemology, this book is worth the effort to see the world through another set of eyes.

horrid.......2007-05-06

I had to read this once for an anthropology class.

For years it remained the worst book I had ever read. (It was later supplanted by John Fowles's "Daniel Martin.")

Anyhow. Such was my loathing for it that, after I had finished the exam on it, I did something I thought I would never see myself do to a book: I literally hurled it into my fire, having stoked the flames for the purpose. I really did.

(For the record, this is the only time I have ever destroyed a book.)

One of my greatest memories. Sigh.

Translation: Dees book sucks, mon.

Black Elk Speaks.......2006-12-05

This was a very interesting first hand accounting of the history leading up
to Little Big Horn. You get a peak into the mystical basis for decision
making and of how the Oglala and several other tribes' living styles were
drastically changed over a brief period of time.
The beginning chapter is the recounting of a dream, which may be hard
to follow, but it is important and lays the groundwork for what happens
later in the book.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

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