Search for the First Americans

Search For The First Americans by David J. Meltzer is a very detailed, very complete book on, as the title says, the history on the search for the first Americans but also the gives a very detailed explanation on such things as how carbon dating is used, how many theories there are and the pros and cons of such ideas and methods used. For example, which is the best way to decide which wave of Americans showed up first? Language groups? DNA? Artifacts found? Did the first Americans kill off many of the larger animals or did most of them die out before the waves of humans from Asia even showed up? And is the evidence strong enough to show us there were three waves of invaders or was there more? At the time this book was published, in 1993, some of this questions were about to be answered while others were still up in the air (and still are). At 176 pages I would suggest this for anybody who is interested in the subject of the First Americans, beginners of not.

This is an excellent book, written at an "entry level" for the general public to enjoy. This book treats a complex and hotly debated topic (peopling of the Americas) and treats it in a comprehensive, exhaustive, yet comprehensible manner. The authors are experts and the information is very valuable. Also, the illustrations and graphics are fantastic. This book is great a great buy for the information/text or the graphics alone -- but for one price you get BOTH.A good book, and useful for fifth grade through graduate level understanding. In other words, very well written.