The Ancient Southwest: Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, and Mesa Verde

I have read several works by this author and found this one to be very enjoyable. I’m able to look up so of the place names to plan my travels in New Mexico. I am amazed at how the early Americans were able to adapt to continuous climate change over the ages. There may be lessons for us In this age when everybody thinks that climate change is new and global stasis existed before.

will be interesting reading that is for sure!

This book is a quick read. The opening section, which describes a typical working day for a field archeologist, is interesting. Thereafter, the book is very uneven. The discussion of early civilizations in New Mexico proceeds historically and provides good background. However, the material, which began as newspaper columns, is poorly edited resulting in a significant lack of continuity. The best written sections are those that cover Chaco Canyon and Bandelier. For non-specialists, a glossary or some other form of explanatory material material would have made the book more accessible.

For anyone who likes to get out on the weekend to see ruins, then this is one book you'll really want to read. It has great information on different ruin sites and how to get to them.

To really appreciate/understand Chaco Canyon, this book provides the necessary background. It is an easy and informative book to read.

Good buy!

Great book

Having read several books about Chaco, I expected the same rather engineering-oriented analysis of the site. This book, however, delves into the lives of those who lived on the fringes: the farmers, the ordinary people, and how the inequalities of resource distribution, especially food, contributed to the decay of an advanced metropolis. If history is studied to inform the living, this is, if nothing else, a fable of what happens when the greed and entitlement of a few are allowed to expand unchecked.