1491

From Goodreads

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus
Charles C. Mann

I think that this is one of the better history books that I have read in awhile. No history books can be absolutely objective, but I feel as though Mann does enough to present both sides fairly, even if he has a particular leaning in any of the controversies surrounding Mesoamerican history. I prefer reading "pop" history much more than researching history and his overarching approach to a massive subject was an enjoyable read. It's a great overview into a history that is less well known than it ought to be.

What really stood out to me in this book was how interestingly connected the history and the theoretical framework the history of the Americas is presented is intertwined with so many other subjects. The tribalism and otherness that permeates the actual history plays out in the understanding of the history in a way that mirrors it, if the mirroring was done in a funhouse. Each discovery and theory takes on new and intriguing distortions as we gaze back at it from new angles, just as our own reflection gets distorted in a funhouse mirror as we look at it from different angles. It's clearly us, but not as distinct as the real us. In some mirrors the closer you get the less distorted the reflection appears. But, in other mirrors in the same funhouse the opposite is true. As you wind through a mirror maze the chimera of clarity is grasped and lost with each progressive step. Mann's overall thought is probably a truer reflection of history writers than those a century ago, but not as accurate as original firsthand accounts. Yet, those early accounts are distorted differently because those accounts looked at the history from a different angle and contain truer impressions of parts of their subject matter that later historians will never see or will somehow overlook. In an hundred years I'll read another book on precolumbian America and come to the same conclusion, having been enlightened and deceived in new ways by the reflections.

Russell: The Fate of Thomas Paine

(Originally written September 8, 2005 in Book 2)

Why I am not a Christian
Bertrand Russell
1957

The Fate of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine preached democracy democratically.
Born of poor Quaker parents.
He was a revolutionist.
Wrote against slavery in America in 1775.
Paine was, one of the, if not the first advocate for a totally free America.
Paine took up the torch for the freedom from every tyranny in America: monarch, aristocracy and slavery.

Thomas Paine inspired courage and resolve in America during the revolution and helped it to victory. He acquired fame for his revolution ideals in France and he helped start the more democratic dealings in England.

Paine's reward was being stripped of money, fame, friends and dignity. He was wanted to be hanged in England, tolerated but unneeded in Napoleonic France and politely disregarded in America.

Paine's single mindedness and intolerance for cruelty of any kind is what makes him admirable. He has had a profound effect and his views are generally accepted nowadays.