Discovering Man S Past In The Americas

More than 450 accounts of the myriad customs, beliefs, legends, languages, adventures, and traditions that helped form America, illustrated with over 700 photographs, paintings, and engravings.

This book presents some of the most significant social history to date in one single volume. Readers will find that Exploring America's Past is not only up to date, but also more inclusive and multicultural than other similar collections. The essays in this book concentrate on issues in America, ranging from freedom, to sexuality, to industry, to war, to minorities, to our youth culture, dance, and music. This comprehensive collection of essays will be ideal for U.S. history survey courses. Contents: Introduction and Acknowledgements; The Meaning of Freedom, Eric Foner; Chinese-Americans Build a Railroad, Jack Chen; Populist Dreams and Negro Rights: East Texas as a Case Study, Lawrence Goodwyn; The Sociology and Historiography of Immigration, Ewa Morawska; Studying American Political Development in the Progressive Era, Martin Sklar; Charity Girls and City Pleasure: Historical Notes on Working-Class Sexuality, 1880-1920, Kathy Peiss; Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s, Lizabeth Cohen; Origins of a Sit-Down Era: Worker Militancy and Innovation in the Rubber Industry, 1934-1938, Daniel Nelson; The Politics of Sacrifice on the Homefront in World War II, Mark Leff; The Riddle of the Zoot, Robin D.G. Kelley; The Land of a Thousand Dances: Youth, Minorities, and the Rise of Rock and Roll, George Lipsitz; The Unraveling of America, Allen Matusow; Ronald Reagan and the Movie, Michael Rogin.

Introduction: the scientific investigation of Kennewick Man / Douglas W. Owsley -- Establishing context. Introductory remark -- The people who peopled America / Brad Lepper -- Geography, paleoecology, and archaeology / James C. Chatters -- Chronology of the Kennewick Man skeleton / Thomas Wier Stafford, Jr. -- The precedent-setting case of Kennewick Man / Alan L. Schneider and Paula A. Barran -- Reflections of a former Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist / Larry D. Banks -- Curation history and overview of the plaintiffs' studies / Cleone H. Hawkinson -- Skeletal studies. Introductory remark -- Skeletal inventory, morphology, and pathology / Douglas W. Owsley, Aleithea A. Williams, and Karin S. Bruwelheide -- Dentition / Christy G. Turner, II -- Dental microwear / Mark F. Teaford and Sireen El-Zaatari -- Orthodontics / John L. Hayes -- Body mass, stature, and proportions of the skeleton / Benjamin M. Auerbach -- Reconstructing habitual activities by biomechanical analysis of long bones / Daniel Wescott -- Bones of the hands and feet / Troy Case -- The natural shocks that flesh is heir to / Della Collins Cook -- Occupational stress markings and patterns of injury / James C. Chatters -- Stable isotopic evidence for diet and origin / Henry P. Schwarcz, Thomas Wier Stafford, Jr., Martin Knyf, Brian Chisholm, Fred J. Longstaffe, James C. Chatters, and Douglas W. Owsley -- Taphonomic indicators of burial context / Douglas W. Owsley, Aleithea A. Williams, Thomas Wier Stafford, Jr. -- Benthic aquatic algae: indicators of recent taphonomic history / James L. Norris and Douglas W. Owsley -- Postmortem breakage as a taphonomic tool for determining burial position / Hugh Berryman -- Applications of technology. Introductory remark -- Computed tomography, visualization, and 3D modeling / Rebecca Snyder -- Prototype accuracy and reassembly / David Hunt -- Molding and casting methods / Steve Jabo -- The point of the story / Dennis Stanford -- Population studies. Introductory remark -- The Ainu and Jōmon connection / C. Loring Brace, Noriko Seguchi, A. Russell Nelson, Pan Qifeng, Hideyuki Umeda, Margaret Wilson, and Mary L. Brace -- Cranial morphometric evidence for early Holocene relationships and population structure / Richard L. Jantz and M. Katherine Spradley -- Two-dimensional geometric morphometrics / M. Katherine Spradley, Richard L. Jantz, and Katherine E. Weisensee -- Morphological features that reflect population affinities / George Gill -- Identity through science and art / Karin S. Bruwelheide and Douglas W. Owsley -- Early Holocene contemporaries. Introductory remark -- Evidence of maritime adaptation and coastal migration from southeast Alaska / E. James Dixon, Timothy H. Heaton, Craig M. Lee, Terence E. Fifield, Joan Brenner Coltrain, Brian M. Kemp, Douglas W. Owsley, Eric Parrish, Christy Turner, Heather J.H. Edgar, Rosita Kaaháni Worl, David Glenn Smith, and G. Lang Farmer -- A new look at the double burial from Horn Shelter no. 2 / Margaret A. Jodry and Douglas W. Owsley -- Kennewick Man's future. Storage and care at the Burke Museum / Cleone Hawkinson -- Who was Kennewick Man? / Douglas W. Owsley and Richard L. Jantz

The first Europeans to set foot on North America stood in awe of the natural abundance before them. The skies were filled with birds, seas and rivers teemed with fish, and the forests and grasslands were a hunter’s dream, with populations of game too abundant and diverse to even fathom. It’s no wonder these first settlers thought they had discovered a paradise of sorts. Fortunately for us, they left a legacy of copious records documenting what they saw, and these observations make it possible to craft a far more detailed evocation of North America before its settlement than any other place on the planet. Here Steve Nicholls brings this spectacular environment back to vivid life, demonstrating with both historical narrative and scientific inquiry just what an amazing place North America was and how it looked when the explorers first found it. The story of the continent’s colonization forms a backdrop to its natural history, which Nicholls explores in chapters on the North Atlantic, the East Coast, the Subtropical Caribbean, the West Coast, Baja California, and the Great Plains. Seamlessly blending firsthand accounts from centuries past with the findings of scientists today, Nicholls also introduces us to a myriad cast of characters who have chronicled the changing landscape, from pre–Revolutionary era settlers to researchers whom he has met in the field. A director and writer of Emmy Award–winning wildlife documentaries for the Smithsonian Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, and PBS, Nicholls deploys a cinematic flair for capturing nature at its most mesmerizing throughout. But Paradise Found is much more than a celebration of what once was: it is also a reminder of how much we have lost along the way and an urgent call to action so future generations are more responsible stewards of the world around them. The result is popular science of the highest order: a book as remarkable as the landscape it recreates and as inspired as the men and women who discovered it.

Discusses the possibility that America was discovered by someone other than Columbus.

From the high plains of Canada to caves in the southeastern United States, images etched into and painted on stone by ancient Native Americans have aroused in observers the desire to understand their origins and meanings. Rock paintings and engravings can be found in nearly every state and province, and each region has its own distinctive story of discovery and evolving investigation of the rock art record. Rock art in the twenty-first century enjoys a large and growing popularity fueled by scholarly research and public interest alike. This book explores the history of rock art research in North America and is the only volume in the past twenty-five years to provide coverage of the subject on a continental scale. Written by contributors active in rock art research, it examines sites that provide a cross-section of regions and topics and complements existing books on rock art by offering new information, insights, and approaches to research. The first part of the volume explores different regional approaches to the study of rock art, including a set of varied responses to a single site as well as an overview of broader regional research investigations. It tells how Writing-on-Stone in southern Alberta, Canada, reflects changing thought about rock art from the 1870s to today; it describes the role of avocational archaeologists in the Mississippi Valley, where rock art styles differ on each side of the river; it explores discoveries in southwestern mountains and southeastern caves; and it integrates the investigation of cupules along Georgia’s Yellow River into a full study of a site and its context. The book also compares the differences between rock art research in the United States and France: from the outset, rock art was of only marginal interest to most U.S. archaeologists, while French prehistorians considered cave art an integral part of archaeological research. The book’s second part is concerned with working with the images today and includes coverage of gender interests, government sponsorship, the role of amateurs in research, and chronometric studies. Much has changed in our understanding of rock art since Cotton Mather first wrote in 1714 of a strange inscription on a Massachusetts boulder, and the cutting-edge contributions in this volume tell us much about both the ancient place of these enduring images and their modern meanings. Discovering North American Rock Art distills today’s most authoritative knowledge of the field and is an essential volume for both specialists and hobbyists.