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The New Madrid earthquake.

A nice book

Who knows when or where?

Thin Fare

Hard to give it a number.

The Big One: The Earthquake That Rocked Early America and Helped Create a Science
Charles Officer , and Jake Page
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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When the Mississippi Ran Backwards : Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes

The New Madrid Earthquakes

The Next New Madrid Earthquake: A Survival Guide for the Midwest (Shawnee Books)

On Shaky Ground: The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-1812 (Missouri Heritage Readers)

The New Madrid Earthquake (Bulletin, No 494)

ASIN: 0618341501

Book Description

In the early 1800s a series of gargantuan earth tremors seized the American frontier. Tremendous roars and flashes of eerie light accompanied huge spouts of water and gas. Six-foot-high waterfalls appeared in the Mississippi River, thousands of trees exploded, and some 1,500 people -- in what was then a sparsely populated wilderness -- were killed. A region the size of Texas, centered in Missouri and Arkansas, was rent apart, and the tremors reached as far as Montreal. Forget the 1906 earthquake -- this set of quakes constituted the Big One. The United States would face certain catastrophe if such quakes occurred again. Could they? The answer lies in seismology, a science that is still coming to grips with the Big One. Jake Page and Charles Officer rely on compelling historical accounts and the latest scientific findings to tell a fascinating, long-forgotten story in which the naturalist John James Audubon, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, scientists, and charlatans all play roles. Whether describing devastating earthquakes or a dire year in a young nation, The Big One offers astounding breadth and drama.

Customer Reviews:

The New Madrid earthquake........2006-03-17

Well, this book had the premise of being a very good, fascinating account of the New Madrid earthquake. The first chapter of the book even starts out with a account of what happened. Then it starts talking about the theory of predictions, why earthquakes happen, why this one might have happened. It was pretty evident that two authors wrote this book. This book goes in all sorts of directions, but the actual one in which it was supposed to go.

Unlike other books, this one was was not smooth and was hard to follow. Even though it was a short book, it took twice as long to read as one considerably thicker but more interesting. I also doubt it is the definitive history of this early American earthquake.

A nice book.......2005-12-27

This book is easy to read. However it jumps from topic to topic without much transistion. It really is more about seismology than about the New Madrid earthquake. It updated my knowledge of the field. It has been 15 to 20 years since I read about plate techtonics in Scientific American. The science has come a long way.

Who knows when or where?.......2004-11-29

This book is a nice,safe,summary of the subject of earthquakes.What this book does is show that the knowledge of earthquakes is still in it's infancy;despite the fact that earthquakes have been around since the beginning of time;and studied,documented,and written about for almost as long.
It seems that each new quake tends to weaken any prediction theory built on the past.As a matter of faith,we all expect big ones to occur,but no idea of when or where.
The track record on earthquake prediction is to predict them in broad terms and far enough into the future that people forget about that prediction and occupy themselves with the latest guesses.On top of that,it always seems that after an earthquake occurs,all kinds of stuff comes out of the woodwokk that claim occurrences were taking place,and if only heeded,would have forewarned us of the quake;but invariably after the fact.
On the back of this book is a statement:
"The earthquake that rocked Early America and helped create a science." I suggest that it may have helped create an industry;the science still remains to be developed.
Another book I recently read was "A Dangerous Place" by Marc Reisner,see my review of Sept 26,2004.He contemplates the inevitable consequences of a major quake occurring near Oakland,Calif. on the Hayward Fault.It's quite good.
It seems that the answer to the big one is still to be found.

Thin Fare.......2004-07-31

The BIg One is more like USA Today than John McPhee - it's written at about an 8th grade level and doesn't tell much. You'll come out not knowing much more than you went in with. There are strange statements here, such as that the 1811 quake killed about 1500 people, while in fact no one knows how many - if any - deaths there were. The pitch that the quake "helped create a science" is also wrong - the quake had no role in the science's growth just because no one knows what caused it. There are lots of good popular geology books out there - but this isn't one of them.

Hard to give it a number........2004-07-11

I don't quite know what to say about this book. The Big One is a difficult book to put a number rating on really. For one thing I'm not quite sure for whom it was written. It strikes me as a "publish-or-perish" kind of production. I enjoyed the book, but only because I enjoy anything on geology. This said, I will point out the merits of the book from the point of various populations of readers.

The average adult with only the very meagerest background, if any, in geology and natural sciences might well enjoy the book-certainly the title and the cover blurb are designed to hook in such a reader-but he/she might be better served by spending the money on a more general title, the focus of which is learning the basics of these sciences. Certainly there are a wide number of such books out there, many of them textbooks for survey courses at the general college level. Just searching Amazon's own list, I turned up thousands of them.

The authors' stated goal was to describe the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, and the first few chapters do an admirable job of it. Unfortunately they tend to get off the track with their discussion of basic geology and don't return to their main topic until the end of the book where they speculate on the effects of a similar event in the future. I had the distinct feeling that they had only a slender amount to say about New Madrid and padded the volume out with a discussion of basic geology for the beginner. I certainly can't imagine a professional geologist reading the book when most of the information contained in it can be found with more precision and detail in professional journals.

Of their aim to demonstrate that the New Madrid quakes provided the impetus to the development of seismology and geology as disciplines, I'm not certain they achieved their goal.
While many people were interested in this event and a number of witnesses attempted to quantify as well as describe it, I'm not certain that this qualifies as any more than a minor branch root of these fields, an interesting aside. Again, if one has an interest in the history of geology, one can find other books that will give a broader and more connected narrative of the personalities and development of this field.

The primary population to whom I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Big One is to libraries that provide books on scientific topics for young people. For advanced students of middle/junior high or interested senior high, the book would be a splendid introduction to the topics of seismology and the geosciences as professions through the intriguing narrative these specific earthquakes and their effects on the people in the area. The book is especially good because it also discusses quackery in earthquake prediction and describes specifically what can and cannot be known about seismic events. It also defines geological terms that have come into the more ill-defined vernacular of journalism and tend to mislead. Furthermore, it describes how such irresponsible journalism can produce public panic that can needlessly cost millions of dollars, while debate about the expense of building codes illustrates how government and science work to protect affected regions. Young people trained to look beyond the headlines for solid information and who pay attention to the particulars of debates over codes, etc. are more likely to be sensible and responsible citizens.

For THOSE WRITING PAPERS on geology, seismology, history, journalism, political science, and urban planning. One might look at how the mythology of the New Madrid quakes grew from the actual events. What human needs were met by this mythology? What kind of distortion do you think may have occurred and why? One might look at how interpretation of published accounts has allowed geologists to fine tune their evaluation of the New Madrid earthquakes and how they fit into plate tectonics. Why did some earlier researchers feel some of the accounts were due to hysteria, while even later researchers believed them to be true. What kinds of things were each looking at? What data did each use to evaluate the narratives? One might look at how governments like that of Peru got almost unavoidably carried away by the quake quackery. Were the responses of these foreign governments any different from the responses of local governments in the US as described by the book? What human issues underline the similarities and differences in these responses? What suggestions, if any, would you make to avoid panic? To what extent is journalism responsible for promoting this type of panic? How might it be held accountable? Can it be held accountable? One might look at the issues of building codes in earthquake prone areas. Do you think that California and the New Madrid area should have similar codes? Why? If not, how should they differ?

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A Great Read for The Interested

Early Earthquakes of the Americas
Robert L. Kovach
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521824893

Book Description

There is emerging interest among researchers from various subject areas in understanding the interplay of earthquake and volcanic occurrences, archaeology and history through the discipline of archaeoseismology. This book focuses on the historical earthquakes of North and South America, and describes the effects of those earthquakes, using illustrated examples of recent structural damage at archaeological sites.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Read for The Interested.......2005-08-03

A very thorough and engrossing study of the history and significance of mainly Pre-Columbian earthquakes in the Americas. I recommend it as an extremely rewarding read for those with interests in earthquakes, pre-Columbian archeology, Geophysics and/or the use of solid science methods to solve otherwise impossible-seeming problems.

Early Earthquakes in the Americas.(Book review) : An article from: Geoscience Canada

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Early Earthquakes in the Americas.(Book review) : An article from: Geoscience Canada
John J. Clague
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Geoscience Canada, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 995 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Early Earthquakes in the Americas.(Book review)
Author: John J. Clague
Publication: Geoscience Canada (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 33 Issue: 1 Page: 33(2)

Article Type: Book review

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Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book Review): An article from: American Antiquity

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Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book Review): An article from: American Antiquity
Payson Sheets
Manufacturer: Society for American Archaeology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Antiquity, published by Society for American Archaeology on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 785 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book Review)
Author: Payson Sheets
Publication: American Antiquity (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: Society for American Archaeology
Volume: 70 Issue: 1 Page: 200(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book review): An article from: Latin American Antiquity

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Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book review): An article from: Latin American Antiquity
Dorothy Freidel
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Latin American Antiquity, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1743 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Early Earthquakes of the Americas.(Book review)
Author: Dorothy Freidel
Publication: Latin American Antiquity (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Page: 357(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Is there a cosmic blueprint?.......2006-07-15

This (2004 edition) is an updated re-publication of Davies' 1988 book. In the new preface, Davies (mathematical physicist, prolific writer, recipient of the Faraday Prize, the Kelvin Medal, and the Templeton Prize) suggests the possibility of something quite outlandish--that if humanity can somehow survive the full future of the universe, that upon the universe's thermodynamic and quantum demise, our descendants might scramble into a new universe of their own manufacture. The assertion brings several thoughts to mind, we might begin with, well, let's say, idea-heisting [I'll not say plagiar_sm, that would be a bit harsh]. (Frank Tipler famously envisioned this kind of scenario in a universe headed for a "big crunch." The big crunch has currently fallen out of favor with astronomers and theorists, and Davies' invented universe envisions the currently favored thermodynamic "big fade away" scenario.) It also might strike us as unrealistic or even arrogant; but, foolish or not, Davies' reason for such 'optimism' is unveiled in the following 200 pages.

What follows is a fast-paced and critical tour-de-force of the state of current and emerging scientific theories and prospects (promising and otherwise) for the future. There are many outstanding discussions, one centered on the mathematics of self-similar scaling -- the "Mandelbrot set" being a famous example. Davies believes that, in principle, science will one day explain, comprehensively, how the world works. Don't hold your breath, we're not exactly close to that day just yet. In some significant areas, notably the deepest theoretical understandings of biological and mind sciences, there seems to have been rather little progress at all. From popular treatments [like glossy spreads in National Geographic magazine, or Discovery Channel shows], one might be led to believe that great insights have been gained into how biological evolution proceeds and how life arises spontaneously from non-life. Davies surveys the competing claims and theories in these disciplines and exposes them as being starkly impotent to date. (There is a popular myth that only religious fundamentalists are skeptical of the neo-Darwinian story line -- but many of the most penetrating minds of modern theoretical science and mathematics, including Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, and Kurt Godel, among others, have found the Darwinian story to be non-compelling at best, and on some points glaringly wrong. As Davies points out, a world in which 'natural selection' was The Great Generative Engine, supporting only reproductive advantages, many life forms that we observe, like elephants [low birth rate, long gestation period, etc], could not have been 'selected' into existence. It does no good to protest that elephants should not and could not reproduce like bunnies -- in a truly Darwinian world there simply should not be elephants [or humans: striving to discern whether the universe might be headed toward a 'big crunch' or a 'heat death' can offer no reproductive advantage for beings given to contemplating such things!]. One thinks of many Darwin-confuters in the plant kingdom. A world built by Darwinian mechanisms would be populated only by masters of mitosis, and perhaps sex-maniacs that mated like bunnies, although sex itself, a comparatively inefficient means of reproduction [obviously when compared to mitotic reproduction], is another intractable problem for the Darwinian story.) Davies, like many noted physicists, is well studied and articulate in theoretical biology, and finds the state of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory to be mostly a patched-up, just-so story that is easy fodder for skepticism. He does, however, believe that Stuart Kaufmann's ideas concerning holistic approaches to understanding complexity may be more fruitful. However I give a wrong impression if I seem to suggest that the book is largely about biological evolution, it is not. This is but one of several illuminating discussions, most of which understandably center on mathematical physics.

Davies, an epistemological optimist at any rate, expects that theoretical biology and mind science will one day succumb to our advancing knowledge, and that we will know, exhaustively, how the world works. But to know how the world works is not to know why the world works. Even if science should attain a reductionistic "theory of everything" and a stunning cadre of holistic theories explaining all features of 'emergence' and 'complexity', the big Why question(s) will remain, and any answers will remain as matters of faith, not strict science. Science speaks to "how," but why should this be so? Why should there be an explainable world and why should it contain world-explainers? One can deny teleological inference and many materialists insist [religiously] on doing so, but the denial is one of personal choice, not actual science. The world IS 'up to something,' and this fact IS fundamentally written into the new physics. The mysterious profundity of "why" always remains. In the day that Davies foresees, when physical science has achieved its final triumph, it will not have dispensed with God and it will not have written purpose out of the world.

Well, that's the book in a nutshell, but there's much more to it. I've read something like ten of Davies' books; most of them being either 'good' or 'very good' (with one notable exception) and this volume fits either category, except, perhaps, for that wild assertion in the new preface.

Analytical, informative and creative..........2005-10-11

Davies has the unique ability to integrate various scientific ideas into a cohesive whole. Rather than dodging questions, he addresses them directly. There is a resistance to many of his ideas partly because some scientists are fearful that creationists will use his arguments to denigrate contemporary science.

I hope Davies will continue to do what he does best-- analyze, synthesize and share his ideas.

The Cosmic Blueprint.......2003-05-28

In 1987, James Gleick released Chaos, which was regarded as a seminal work in the subject, but in the same year, a much less popularised book by Paul Davies - The Cosmic Blueprint was also released - a vastly wider-ranging and advanced introduction to the theory of Complexity, as chaos came to be known.

Davies' book clearly explains the fundamental concepts and ties them all in - emergence, nonlinearity, the second law, self-organization, stochastic structures, complex and dynamic systems, darwinism and creativity - in all their cosmological and terrestial implications, with excellent philosophy to back it.

This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in contemporary science. It still stands as a classic explication of an emerging new scientific paradigm which is now in full swing, and which Davies called and contextualized years ahead of his time.

If you read one science book in your life, this should be it.

The Cosmic Blueprint.......2003-05-28

If you read one science book in your life, this should be it.

IT CANNOT BE LEGO!.......2000-07-31

Besides being, like many others of Davies' books, a little masterpiece of scientific vulgarization, this is a deeply honest enterprise under a strict, intellectual standpoint. But one which, while clinging to a crystalline sense of science's autonomy, aims at promoting a persuasion: reductionism (something called by the less merciful critics "this ritual nothingbuttery") is no more viable as a means of convincing explanation for natural phenomena, especially for those of a higher, more complex order, like living systems, human beings and, on top of all, human conscience and intelligence, both as individual and social processes.

The book strikes a perfect balance - not in the sense of compromise at all costs but in that, more useful and enlightening, of creative dialectical synthesis - between a steady faith in the capacity of science to investigate and eventually unveiling natural truths and a sort of rational and humane optimism which makes one feel that our universe is a formidable work-in-progress with a built-in, but not mechanistic inclination at producing new principles and meaning.

Mystery and freedom (and that flavour of "philosophic poetry" associated with them!) are preserved in the frame of a non-deterministic worldview, because no precise and mandatory evolutionary path seems to have been established at the "beginning", which Davies assumes, like the majority of today's cosmologists, to have been the Big Bang, the "moment" at which all - space, time, matter and energy - broke into being. Rather a potentiality for progress which in the course of billions of years has reached and will reach numerous transition points, from where the universe can branch out into a wide choice of meaningful possibilities. The only "constraint" being represented by a sort of tacit, maternal invitation to follow the route to self-consciousness as if the universe was sketched in such a way as to eventually reach this fundamental stage. For this reason Davies appears to believe, but never in a fixed, dogmatic sense, that just something like a loose cosmic blueprint, whence the book's title, lies hidden at the very core of creation, secretly fostering the growth of that substance we call, with still a bit of approximation, Intelligence.

I think that, like any truly important book, this one was written to revisit old questions and pose new ones rather than to provide standard ready-made answers, because, Davies seems to imply, no definite and irreversible answer is written on the giant cosmic page before us. That's to say: open arguments, for open minds!

During his exposition Davies touches many of the issues on which the debate and the contrasts between reductionism and holism are more vivid and intellectually productive. And he affirms that a new turn towards holism is gaining momentum among the scientific communities the world over as the lego-like philosophy of reductionism shows all its conceptual inadequacy to provide convincing prospects for the advancement of our understanding of complexity and significance.

Such rich notions as Jung's principle of synchronicity and Elsasser's "biotonic laws" are discussed, as well as that nice and inevitable philosophical animal known under the name of Schroedinger's cat, which as every well-read scientific layman already knows implies a plunge into the spectral world of quantum-mechanics. These and many other ideas and hypotheses are presented in a fascinating review of the more suggestive attempts to forge new visions of the universe and its destiny.

As a final, if trivial, consideration I may say that after reading this kind of books you come back to your everyday routine problems with a refreshed notion of their limited importance and consequently with the conviction that you should not permit them to take away a too large amount of your intellectual and spiritual energies.

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Intuitive Explanation of "Downward Causation"

The Cosmic Blueprint: New Discoveries in the Nature's Creative Ability to Order the Universe
Paul Davies
Manufacturer: Touchstone Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671675613

Customer Reviews:

Intuitive Explanation of "Downward Causation".......2004-11-08

This book gives a great feel for Downward Causation. Is it a "Straw Man" to label bottom-up clockwork-universe types as "Believing that knowing the Physics behind Random Access Memory, would let you derive the programs stored in it" ? For many, the idea that the universe is NOT absolutely deterministic will still come as a revelation in late 2004. "Absolute Determinism" is a dead horse still in need of much more kicking, as Arthur Koestler's SPCDH might remark.

4 stars, because it rambles more than his later books, but then again there is good stuff in here which isn't repeated in the later books.

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology) (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology)

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The rebirth of urbanism in Carolingian Europe

Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology) (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology)
Richard Hodges
Manufacturer: Duckworth Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0715629654

Product Description

Preface 7 1. Binary opposites and paradigms 11 2. Charlemagne s elephant 35 3. Dream cities: Non-places 69 4. Charlemagne as model town-maker 93 5. Conclusion 119 Bibliography 126 Index 140

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The rebirth of urbanism in Carolingian Europe.......2002-05-31

A short introduction to urban continuity/discontinuity between Classical Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. A history of the debate from Pirenne and interpretations of the historical literature to the recent archaeology of the North Sea emporiums such as Dorestad, Hamwic, and Ribe. A excellent and quick read on a subject that vexes historians and archaeologists alike.

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