Why a book review on Seattle Socks?  Our customers are diverse and interested in a multitude of topics.  Occasionally, we have the opportunity to have interesting books reviewed by our own writer so we thought we should share.  Christopher visited Central Mexico after reading 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.  A great sock for his travels would be  the Alpaca Sport Low Mesh Sock.

The title alone is intriguing, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus offers a description of the Americas during a time period very few Americans think about, the time before European settlement. When I told my environmental science professor that I was going to Central Mexico for vacation he recommended that I read this book before I go. After reading the summary I realized he was definitely right, it is a must read for anyone traveling into the territory formerly dominated by ancient civilizations. Natural history buffs can also glean knowledge from this story through the descriptions of how the people interacted with their environment in ways that are contrary to high school text books.

Fair warning to the bookworm traveler, this book is written by an academic and can be very dry at times, but this should not be a deterrent. Charles C. Mann tackles debated issues and speculated theories and wraps them together into a book that does not necessarily follow a historical timeline, but touches on subjects from agriculture to technology, and population estimates that exceed those of European cities during the same time.

Mann displays ideas of how the Americas were populated from Asia and describes the geography that determined their expansion, the food they ate, and the methods in which these theories were derived. He also notes some of the greatest achievements the peoples of the Americas made including the genetic engineering of food including corn and the tomato. The book also offers an opportunity to shift our thinking about how Pre-Columbian people lived off the land, describing how Americans have always been drastically altered the natural environment we depend on, but in different ways.

I would extend my professor's recommendation if you are traveling anywhere in the Americas south of the US/Canadian border. Mann's historical and anthropological accounts extend from Boston to Mexico City, the Amazon and to the southern reaches of the Andes. For an illustrated account, Mann has also produced a book for children grade 6 and up, Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491.