Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Firstly, I would like to say the author has a lively writing style. He writes clearly, covering many different aspects of archeology, paleontology, DNA analysis and myriad others in an integrated whole on the subject of the peopling of the Americas. He often uses humor in his writing which I found enjoyable. The author covers topics in a methodical, detailed fashion yet neither talks down to nor talks over the heads of the general reader. But...It is obvious the author is a defender of orthodoxy - even when evidence doesn't support it. His personal biases are fairly obvious. Even the careful general reader can see the "flies in the ointment". He has a tendency to gloss over evidence that does not support his own beliefs (shouldn't science be based on fact rather than "belief"?) or ignore it completely. He is, as most are in academia, thoroughly "politically correct" and it unfortunately colors his evaluation of issues. The author treats the hypothesized "ice-free corridor" as fact. If this "corridor" is indeed the entry point of asian populations between Berengia and the Americas proper, the oldest evidence of human habitation should be there with finds further south being progressively less ancient. In fact, the case is the opposite. Monte Verde is the oldest discovered and is in South America. The next oldest are in the American southwest with the least ancient found in the proposed ice-free corridor. The evidence simply doesn't support the hypothesis as yet (new finds may shed more light on the issue). This is supposed to be science, remember? We're supposed to base our conclusions on *facts*, not what we *want* to believe. The author goes out of his way to absolve paleoindians of "overkill" regarding the extinction of pliestocene "mega fauna". He zeroes in on climate change which changed the food sources for these animals (less digestible warm-weather grasses replacing cold-weather plant material that would be crucial for species such as mammoth) as the most likely culprit. The buffalo (bison bison) survived because it's multiple stomachs could digest the new grasses while primitive horses, camels, mammoths, etc. could not. The "fly in the ointment"? The giant bison (bison antiquus) with the same digestive capacity as the buffalo also went extinct. The fact is overkill sites have been found where early hunters trapped and killed large numbers of animals they could not have consumed before most of it rotted. It seems no people can be accused of harming their environment unless they are white. ;) Chapter 10 is a waste of ink. It has nothing to do with the subject of the book and is a politically-correct rehash of "the evil white man came and destroyed the continent" stuff. I suppose it is expected for an academic who wants to continue to get research grants to say stuff like this. At several points, this borders on the absurd. He relates the killing of Aztec "worshippers" by "unsavory lieutenant, Pedro de Alvorado" in Tenochtitlan as "cruel and foolish". Umm...weren't those "worshippers" hacking people's chests open to pull still-beating hearts from the bloody holes? Just askin'. ;) The fact of the matter is that the Spanish and the Aztecs were *both* rapacious, cruel, brutal oppressors, not good-guy vs. bad-guy. I would not reccomend this book. The author has waaay too many axes to grind and vested interests to protect. Science should be guided by fact and evidence and, sometimes, science should have the courage to admit "we don't know".