Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Cities

This was the first (and perhaps only book) to discuss the discoveries of mounds that are older than the acclaimed Poverty Point. He discusses Watson Brake and Frenchman's Bend which are over 5,000 years old.

In reference to the review below (honestly, just an ignorant rant), the full title of this book is HIDDEN CITIES : THE DISCOVERY AND LOSS OF ANCIENT NORTH AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS and the book makes no promise, starting right there on the cover, to be an archeology book on the Mound-builder civilizations. In fact, go try to find a good archeology book on these lost civilizations. I dare you. The operative word here is "good" (I've reviewed one entry that was written at a 12-year-old level, was full of juvenile speculation, and truly deserved one star). This is a phenomenal, well-written, meticulously researched book that details the history of a non-history--ignorance that is present till this day. While I'm steeped in acquaintances who allege they know every little dribble about "Native Americans," few have any knowledge whatsoever of the civilizations of North America that existed right up to the earliest European discoveries. Dawning awareness of these recently vanished civilizations influenced early government policies, got a lot of significant people thinking about who these "savages" they were encountering truly were, and forced others to ask hard questions about history. This book covers this epiphany brilliantly. This is important--essential even--material for any understanding of the relationship of Native Americans and European settlers. And it's out of print! Honestly, I don't think any of this suits the current white intellectual romanticized notions of tribal peoples in North America very well and that's why so little interest has been shown in the Mound-builders. These guys worked metal, lived in cities, had complex governments, and possibly were the prime shakers and movers on this continent which makes the tribal people we love so well something of remnants, or even a side-show. Their soldiers even wore metal body armor--hardly the happy image we want and need of natives living in harmony with nature. It perhaps even explains the dignity and sophistication of many of the Eastern Native Americans (rhetorical skills alone were alleged to be phenomenal). It makes sense out of a Tecumseh who's Big Picture view never seemed to be that of a hunter/gatherer. I've tried to research the Mound-builders and the best info I've come across was in 100-year-old editions of Scientific American. This was big news among archaeologists in 1890 and Sci-Am published mountains of illustrations of sophisticated Mound-builder artifacts. One sees these and immediately senses distant linkages to Aztec culture. Amazing that one has to dig through musty old magazines to see these! Native American studies has become so completely politicized and romanticized in the last decades that truth and knowledge aren't even issues any more. Awareness of the existence of the Mound-builders assists no modern agenda; it's inconvenient stuff in fact, much as awareness of the complex dynamics of African culture(s)during the slave-trading years muddies the much-loved victi

There was a thriving and highly sophisticated civilization in North America long before europeans arrived. Astonishingly, this fact has slowly become mainstream only very recently. Evidence of this civilization presents itself everywhere in the form of earthen architecture, or mounds, scattered throughout North America. Some of these mounds were tufts of earth that easily fell to the plow. Others rose to awe-inspiring monumental heights. And these mounds weren't mere transitory stations for nomads. They provided the centers of massive metropolises that supported thousands of people. So these mounds represent more than piles of dirt (as some may want to blithely excuse them); they represent the earliest known North American Cities. Most mainstream North American history has ignored these structures and the societies that inhabited them. And many of the mounds have fallen prey to urban development projects and "progress". Nearly 90% of the structures recorded by early european settlers have completely disappeared. Roger Kennedy takes on this hefty subject in this book written in 1994. The title is "Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization" but the book contains far more information than that. The title actually misleads quite a bit. And the book's argument doesn't present itself in a straightforward linear manner, either. It takes considerable effort, and a large vocabulary, to glean the book's main purpose and salient points. Regardless, this book still presents a good overview for the subject of ancient america because that history gets interwoven with early european-american history. Following an introductory chapter that discusses some of the greatest monuments of pre-european North American civilization (such as the 5000 year old Watson's Brake, the 3000 year old Poverty Point, the relatively recent metropolis of Cahokia, and the massive society that existed in the fertile Ohio and Mississippi river valleys), the book moves directly into the views of eminent europeans such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the overwhelming structural evidence of the civilization that preceded them in North America. Those interested in mounds and "hidden cities" might lose interest here. From this point on earthen architure only appears here and there interspersed by numerous digressions on the various people who witnessed the mounds from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Those interested in general history will find much to savor here, but the book remains difficult to follow nonetheless. In the end, the book examines more of european prejudice against the people (collectively referred to as "Hopewell" and "Adena") who supposedly made the mounds than the mounds and cities themselves. One of the main faults of the book is that it takes on too much in a mere three-hundred pages. Not only does it discuss the lost cities of North America, but it attempts to examine all of the following: the lives of var

An amazing book about a lost era of American history. Probably one of the best books written on the Mound Builders. While very well documented and footnoted, the book could use more illustrations and maps. Of course to call them "Mound Builders" is not entirely accurate, as they built more than mounds. Pyramids, platforms, circles, squares, cones, octagons, and fortresses. Whoever these mysterious people were, they had a great knowledge of astronomy and geometry to construct what they did, from the Ohio valley to Florida. Many of the sites are lost to time, but there are state parks that do preserve these ancient works. Here we have a lost civilization as great as the Maya--right here in North America!

You will read this book and you will ask "Why don't I know this? Why don't I know that there were sophisticated civilizations comparable to the Aztecs or Mayans in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys before the coming of Columbus? Why don't I know that many large Midwestern cities were built on the ruins of Indian cities? Why are the monuments of these civilizations to this day being torn down to make room for parking lots and golf courses?" The book tries to answer these questions, and points to an amazing act of collective amnesia that was necessary to justify the taking of the American continent from the descendants of these civilizations. In the course of tracing this willed ignorance, Kennedy provides great insight into the thinking and characters of some of America's first leaders--this book greatly changed the way I think about Jefferson, and actually improved my estimation of Washington. This book is an exciting read. It uncovers a lost civilization, as fascinating as Atlantis--only it's real, and it's in our own backyard.