Review of Hancock's book 'America before'

[Hanslune]

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/american-atlantis-colavito-review-america-before-key-to-earths-lost-civilization/

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America Before is the story of Hancock’s search for proof that Atlantis—or a civilization so similar as to be identical in all but name—flourished in the Americas prior to the end of the last Ice Age.

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In the end, America Before is similar to the lost civilization Hancock imagines—a hodgepodge of half-remembered stories tying together impressionistic collections of facts that never quite add up to a coherent whole. Hancock is in many ways an artist rather than a scholar, and he lets innuendo and impression do the hard work of turning his cabinet of curiosities into an argument. In artistic terms, America Before is a bit like an Impressionist painting hung among the pre-Raphaelites and passing itself off as a photograph. It may be interesting and emotional and occasionally beautiful, but it is not realistic.

An interesting read - the review perhaps not the book

[Piney]

Hancock's theory on Atlantis was ripped directly from Cayce. 

   As for the Quartz crystals, they were the Horned Serpent's eyes in Siouian and Algonquian Tradition and the ancestors of the Cherokee had nothing to do with the Hopewell Horizon but sat on the edges and built no mounds themselves. They borrowed the Horned Serpent from the Carolina Algonquians. 

 The Serpent Mound was probably built by the Fort Ancient Culture who were the ancestors of the Shawnee, Kikapu and Illini-Miami in response to Halley's Comet.  

   Atl does means water in Nahuatl , which has no relation to any language in Europe or Africa. They also were not the builders but the Shoshone-Ute Peoples who came down from the North and ruled the city builders by force. Becoming the "Warrior Class" of the Triple Alliance (Aztecs) who were made up of 3 different peoples. 

[Minimalists]

I don't know how anyone can read Hancock's books, his books are so boring....

[Piney]

20 minutes ago, Alien Origins said:

I don't know how anyone can read Hancock's books, his books are so boring....

I saw the term "Great White Gods" in a review and said "OK, I'm done". 

[+susieice]

2 hours ago, Piney said:

I saw the term "Great White Gods" in a review and said "OK, I'm done". 

I've read some fiction where the authors have Vikings sailing down the coast of North America to Mexico. Good reading but I'm not so sure how accurate it is. lol

[+Desertrat56]

15 hours ago, Alien Origins said:

I don't know how anyone can read Hancock's books, his books are so boring....

You might enjoy Harry Harrison's Eden series.  It is done really well for alternate history and very entertaining.

[Harte]

5 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

You might enjoy Harry Harrison's Eden series.  It is done really well for alternate history and very entertaining.

The interspecies rape scenes turned me off. Otherwise, Harrison is great.

Harte

[Piney]

19 hours ago, susieice said:

I've read some fiction where the authors have Vikings sailing down the coast of North America to Mexico. Good reading but I'm not so sure how accurate it is. lol

 

21 minutes ago, Harte said:

The interspecies rape scenes turned me off. Otherwise, Harrison is great.

Harte

These folks are friends of mine.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/w-michael-gear/vikings-in-north-america.htm

[Piney]

7 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

You might enjoy Harry Harrison's Eden series.  It is done really well for alternate history and very entertaining.

I just looked that over because I liked the Stainless Steel Rat as a teen. I know it's 1980s but the biology is so bad in it, I can't get through it. 

[Tatetopa]

2 hours ago, Piney said:

These folks are friends of mine.

Thats cool. I've read five or six of their books.  I'd like to hope  they ask you questions once in a while? 

[Tatetopa]

I read the review.  Colavito is gives a pretty good sum up of the major problems with Graham's latest.

[Piney]

15 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Thats cool. I've read five or six of their books.  I'd like to hope  they ask you questions once in a while? 

Yeah, I sent them 3 reports on the Wolf Shaman with the facial modifications that were found in Kentucky and New Jersey after the already portrayed them as Oneta (Siouian) when they were actually Algonquian and I helped them debunk some garbage about the red haired giants of Lovelock Cave with some of M.R. Harringtons original reports at the Heye Foundation. 

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

Yeah, I sent them 3 reports on the Wolf Shaman with the facial modifications that were found in Kentucky and New Jersey after the already portrayed them as Oneta (Siouian) when they were actually Algonquian and I helped them debunk some garbage about the red haired giants of Lovelock Cave with some of M.R. Harringtons original reports at the Heye Foundation. 

I like their books, I know they are archaeologists, I'm glad some of the details come from a good source.

[Hanslune]

13 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

I read the review.  Colavito is gives a pretty good sum up of the major problems with Graham's latest.

I look forward to the many fervent believers declaring in breathless astonishment: "asteroid/comet x destroyed a native American Victorian level civilization that left nothing behind because Hancock says so...."

I tingle with anticipation.

 

""In the end, America Before is similar to the lost civilization Hancock imagines—a hodgepodge of half-remembered stories tying together impressionistic collections of facts that never quite add up to a coherent whole. Hancock is in many ways an artist rather than a scholar, and he lets innuendo and impression do the hard work of turning his cabinet of curiosities into an argument. In artistic terms, America Before is a bit like an Impressionist painting hung among the pre-Raphaelites and passing itself off as a photograph. It may be interesting and emotional and occasionally beautiful, but it is not realistic.""

[Hanslune]

https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/04/the-pseudoarchaeology-of-america-before-a-review/

Another review of the book.

 Hancock probably spent a great deal of time to word smith that so it would be both a 'clear declaration' of what he believes and also absolves him from any need to come up with any evidence'. Brilliant!Well suited for fringe belief. His fans will take his statement as 'fact'.

Hancocks classic statement:

"“My speculation, which I will not attempt to prove here or to support with evidence but merely present for consideration, is that the advanced civilization I see evolving in North America during the Ice Age had transcended leverage and mechanical advantage and learned to manipulate matter and energy by deploying powers of consciousness that we have not yet begun to tap.”

 

 

[docyabut2]

Been arguing with Hancock for years for his theory of Atlantis  being in America.:)went through all his  North America  the last Ice Age  a  big asteroid hit America. We proved him so wrong:)   

[Hanslune]

Another review; https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/03/pre-review-of-america-before-graham-hancocks-new-pseudoscience/

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Hancock’s general thesis is, in his own words, that “the evidence points to is a shared legacy of knowledge inherited from a much earlier civilization that has been lost to history.” I predict his book will present a mix of scientific fact with specious data followed by speculations. Many speculations. Speculations that he will word as facts—the logical conclusions of his pseudoscientific perspective of the world around him. Rather than marvel at the ingenuity and clever nature of the human species, Hancock can only see an ancient world that has a far more complicated and complex society that created or gave rise to everything we should be congratulating the ancestors of the world’s diverse cultures for sorting out on their own.

 

[SHaYap]

Gud ol Graham...  Best case of lemons and lemonade... 

~

[BorizBadinov]

On 4/23/2019 at 2:40 PM, Hanslune said:

Hancocks classic statement:

"“My speculation, which I will not attempt to prove here or to support with evidence but merely present for consideration, is that the advanced civilization I see evolving in North America during the Ice Age had transcended leverage and mechanical advantage and learned to manipulate matter and energy by deploying powers of consciousness that we have not yet begun to tap.”

 

 

I think this is a total dis to Uri Gellar.... we be tappin

[Gaden]

On 4/23/2019 at 3:40 PM, Hanslune said:

https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/04/the-pseudoarchaeology-of-america-before-a-review/

Another review of the book.

 Hancock probably spent a great deal of time to word smith that so it would be both a 'clear declaration' of what he believes and also absolves him from any need to come up with any evidence'. Brilliant!Well suited for fringe belief. His fans will take his statement as 'fact'.

Hancocks classic statement:

"“My speculation, which I will not attempt to prove here or to support with evidence but merely present for consideration, is that the advanced civilization I see evolving in North America during the Ice Age had transcended leverage and mechanical advantage and learned to manipulate matter and energy by deploying powers of consciousness that we have not yet begun to tap.”

 

 

 You know, we laugh at this, but it is actually very sad, because the gullible people that fall for these stories are the same ones electing our government officials.

[Piney]

13 hours ago, Hanslune said:

Another review; https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/03/pre-review-of-america-before-graham-hancocks-new-pseudoscience/

I love the comments from the Hancock defenders. They take the concept of "non-argument" to a high art form. 

[Harte]

4 hours ago, Piney said:

I love the comments from the Hancock defenders. They take the concept of "non-argument" to a high art form. 

I posted a comment there.

Harte

[Hanslune]

1 hour ago, Harte said:

I posted a comment there.

Harte

Don't tell me GH believed Pakal's sarcophagus lid showed an astronaut!

[Harte]

You never read Fingerprints?

Harte

[Hanslune]

1 hour ago, Harte said:

You never read Fingerprints?

Harte

Long ago and thought it was trash. I was reading it while on vacation and dumped it before I finished it (I think) anyway so my my girlfriend could put more of her stuff in my suitcase. I remember the place Rhodes and my then fiance a lot better than that book. Don't recall what he said about it in any regards. .\

Edited to add: I think actually I read very little of it because he started in on Atlantis and I disliked Atlantis even that far back!

Edited April 26, 2019 by Hanslune