Prehistoric America

U.S. Landmark Books #11

by Anne Terry White

Book by White, A.T.

Genres: Nonfiction, Prehistoric, History

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Lilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging writing, interesting information, and whoever owned this book before me drew a flip book animation on the edge of the pages. Hours of entertainment!
I was expecting this to be a dinosaur book, but it was the evolutionary history of America combined with the paleontological history, combined with native history, combined with geological history.
They really covered all their bases.
I’m not an evolution believer myself, so I didn’t find a lot of value in the picture they painted of Prehistoric America on a multi-millennial scale, but I loved the stories of more recent discoveries like the bones in the la brea tar pits, and native homesteads and monuments!

[Rodney]

This book is number 11 in the Landmark historical book series. It is not one that I read as a child but with my current hobby of collecting/reading the whole series I bought it. So I am happy I marked another book off my list but this definitely low on my list of books I liked. The book was a discussion of archeology and the various other sciences that study “long ago”. It described the finding of fossils and how the expedition down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon helped people understand how the land was formed with glaciers and the various “ages”. I think the book should definitely be read for the facts it contains but don’t expect a quick read because it does get dry in places.

[TE · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rather odd but welcome addition to the Landmark series, and a capable synthesis of history and science. I also see from the paucity of the reviews that it's definitely not one of the most popular in the series, but I think it's still worth the time. Legitimately, it wasn't one of my favorites in the series, but I do love geology, so it was still a fun read. The language was just a bit cumbersome for me. This edition essentially told the story of life on the American continents, before they were such, actually, and it did a fairly thorough job of describing the profound changes which took place over the course of hundreds of millions of years, and why the geography of the American continents is the way it is now. The book also does a good job of making rather complex material accessible to a younger audience.

It didn't include as much on dinosaurs as I thought it might, but the diversity of topics was impressive for such a short volume. It definitely sacrificed depth for breadth, but provided a good overview. It even touched on the religious question, probably cognizant of the fact that many youngsters would have been told that the earth was created in six literal days, and that the biblical flood was an actual, historical event which occurred only 6,000 years ago, so it's at least sensitive to that viewpoint. My one caveat here: a fair bit of the material is also quite dated, as we've learned a lot in the past half-century. It's greatest strength is the broad-strokes overview which at least provides a decent foundation for further reading.

[Kelly Hohenstern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another landmark book. Loved learning about all the early and prehistoric animals and later. Also loved the way that it broke down history by timeline. Really puts into perspective how short of a time man has actually been on Earth in comparison to animals, plants, basic fungi and even rocks a bad the earth. Loved all the research done too and the listed scientists/ man who made the discoveries.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a loooong, long time ago. The title has been at the edge of my mind for years now, but I finally remembered it. Yay! Unfortunately, I read it in about second grade, so I can't really write a review.

[Russell Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious little book to read along with my Biology class.