1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

All that stuff you were taught in school about North America being an empty, idyllic wilderness? Not true. In fact, there were millions of people living in the Americas before European contact. The hemisphere prior to 1492 was more populous, more urban, and more ecologically managed than anyone imagined. Mann's book redraws the map of human civilization and, we'd argue, is a must-read.