Lost Cities of North & Central America (The Lost City Series)

by David Hatcher Childress

Release Date: July, 1992

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

Highly entertaining

I received this book as a birthday present last month from a friend who has read a number of Childress's books. As we share an interest in anthropology and have visited some of the sites in New Mexico mentioned in this book, she thought I would enjoy it. And I did! This book is part travelogue, part archaeology text, and part collection of legends, folktales, and any odd theories he comes across. The mix makes for interesting reading. Childress is intelligent and well-informed but quirky as well. His observations on people he meets and life in the places he visits are at times insightful, funny, and strange.

The only warning I'd give is that the books published by Adventures Unlimited tend to be poorly edited so don't be surprised to find some spelling and grammar errors present. Still, these errors didn't detract from my enjoyment of "Lost Cities of North and Central America."

This isn't a serious academic text, but it's quite informative, an excellent read, and lots of fun!

Interesting book, regardless of factual errors.

David H. Childress's Lost City series has been one of the most interesting collection of books I have read in a long time, however, I really don't know how accurate many of his theories are. Even many minor statements he makes, such as "Native Americans can not grow facial hair" are fallacies, I know an abundance of Native Americans, and they're facial hair rivals that of Che and Fidel. So when a guy gets facts as simple as these garbled, how much credibility can he possibly have when he starts rambling on about "Smithsoniangate", and "living dinosaurs".

I find these possibilites as intriuguing as the next guy, but exactly where is his proof. He cites some archival information from an Arizona newspaper as proof that in the Grand Canyon in the early 1900's researchers found a cave full of Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Egyptian artifacts, and the Smithsonian museum came in and barricaded the area to this day(sort of like Raiders of the Lost Ark). And he uses oral history as proof that there are living Pteradactyls in the forests of Arizona. Perhaps Childress is correct in these assertions, and the US gov't is suppressing evidence of his relatively outlandish claims, then again, perhaps he's just trying to exploit the gullibility of the American public. But judging from his appearances on various talk shows, my guess is that he honestly believes that the gov't is suppressing information on the esoteric subjects he discusses in his books, of course this doesn't neccessarily mean that he's correct in these claims. I suppose that Childress's writings are extremely interesting, whether they are complete fabrications or are truisms. Reading this book certainly won't make you a better person, but it will force you to question what the author is claiming(that the US gov't is involved in clandestine activities of a paranormal nature, and that there are living prehistoric creatures), and will almost definitely force you to ponder what the US gov't plans to accomplish by suppressing ancient history(from my perspective they recieve no incentive by suppressing info that would link the Egyptians with North America). If you have a relatively large amount of time on your hands, I would definitely recommend this book, it makes you question the "accepted" history of the North American continent, but it also frustrates the reader with the lack of viable evidence to support his outrageous suggestions.