1491

[calliopeo]

I'm reading an amazing book called 1491 about what the world was like before the Europeans came. Lots of interesting ideas, many of which I've heard before, but one of the most fascinating is this--the Inca solved their problems through textiles, not through metals. Bridges of rope, not rock--the Spaniards were terrified to walk across them

Comments

[gingembre]

Interestingly enough, I knew about the writing system already. This whole post reminds me to ask you - did you ever read Pastwatch?

[calliopeo]

I LOVE Pastwatch. It's one of the books that made me really want to read 1491--and now I want to go back and read it again. Another book that has some really interesting speculation about alternative ways that the New World could have developed is Kim Stanley Robinson's "Years of Rice and Salt." It speculates on what would have happened if the plague had killed 99% of Europeans instead of 1/3. (Which, incidentally, is close to the 96-98 percent kill rate some anthropologists are suggesting.)