House Of Rain: Tracking Vanished Civilizations Across the American Southwest

[Sequoia]

by Craig Childs



The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today's southwestern New Mexico) and built what has been called the Las Vegas of its day, a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world.

The Anasazis' accomplishments - in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture, and in engineering - were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans in distant Central America. By the thirteenth century, however, the Anasazi were gone from Chaco. Vanished. What was it that brought about the rapid collapse of their civilization? Was it drought? pestilence? war? forced migration? mass murder or suicide? For many years conflicting theories have abounded.

Craig Childs draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as on a lifetime of adventure and exploration in the most forbidding landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery. He takes us to the places where the Anasazi lived:


Chaco Canyon, where, using timber transported from forests more than fifty miles away, the Anasazi erected structures that would remain the tallest in North America until the advent of skyscraper technology more than eight hundred years later;

the highlands of Mesa Verde, where the Anasazi retreated to remote, barely accessible cliff settlements as their society unraveled;

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/23/0316608173/index.html

I can't wait to read this book. I read his wonderful book, "The Secret Knowledge of Water" some years ago and just loved it. Great book.

[bemildred]

1. "Soul of Nowhere" is good too.

If you like that sort of thing, as I do.

[Sequoia]

2. I'll have to check it out. Never heard of it. Thank you.

The best part of Secret Knowlege was when he was in a cave and could hear the water which sounded like people whispering and such. How true that is. I was at Crystal Cave in Sequoia Nat'l Park and it did sound like people talking in low voices at a distance.

[bemildred]

3. It's more personal, I think, than this one.

Can't be sure until I read this one, which could be a while, my pile is pretty big. He's a very good writer too. Reminds me of Wm T. Vollmann in some respects.