) I got a copy of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (by Charles C. Mann) that I ordered online. This is about the civilizations and conditions that existed in the "New World" before Columbus came and messed things up:
Mann concludes that Indians were a "keystone species", one that "affects the survival and abundance of many other species". By the time the Europeans arrived in number to supplant the indigenous population in the Americas, the previous dominant people (Indians) had been almost completely eliminated, mostly by disease. As it killed many Indians, their control of the environment was disrupted, as were their societies. After the Indians died, animal populations, such as that of the buffalo, increased immensely. "Because they (Europeans) did not burn the land with the same skill and frequency and need as its previous occupants, the forests grew thicker." The world discovered by Christopher Columbus was to begin to change from that point on, so Columbus "was also one of the last to see it in pure form".
Mann concludes that we must look to the past to write the future. "Native Americans ran the continent as they saw fit. Modern nations must do the same. If they want to return as much of the landscape as possible to its state in 1491, they will have to create the world’s largest gardens."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Rev...Before_ColumbusI tried to read this book from the library but I can't seem to keep it checked out long enough!
