House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest - Hardcover

Childs, Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316608173 ISBN 13: 9780316608176

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Craig Child's a naturalist, adventurer, desert ecologist, and frequent contributor to National Public Radio's Morning Edition lives in Crawford, Colorado. His previous books include The Secret Knowledge of Water, Soul of Nowhere, and The Way Out.

Reviews

Although less well known than the Mayans, the Anasazi, who flourished in the region now known as New Mexico, also vanished without a trace. Now, eight centuries after their thriving, 2,000-year-old civilization disappeared as though it had never existed, naturalist and adventurer Childs undertakes to find out where the Anasazi went and why. But discovering the fate of an entire race of people, 800 years after the fact, is not like tracking down a missing person. Childs' investigation relies heavily on scholarly literature, oral tradition, and lots of reading between the lines of history. There are no definitive answers here, but Childs ask plenty of tantalizing questions. The book is finally not so much about what happened to the Anasazi as it is about our own fascination with lost civilizations. David Pitt
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Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316608173
• ISBN 13: 9780316608176
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512