Native American History

May 1, 1997
Gr 5 Up-Intended to place the history of Native North American cultures into the context of world affairs, this book uses a split-page format, listing, side by side, benchmarks in both areas between 28,000 B.C. and late 1996. The juxtapositions point up a few intriguing parallels, such as the presence of pyramids on both sides of the Atlantic, but are in general more effective as a tool for helping students of history to think globally, and as a graphic way to link contemporaneous events on different continents. Nies lists incidents by year, not specifying exact days or months, focusing only on the indigenous cultures of Mexico and the continental U.S. (mentioning Captain Cook, for instance, only in connection with his claims on the Pacific Northwest) and is very selective of "outside" happenings-so much so that the "World History" column is occasionally blank for a page or more. On the other hand, the author's political, social, religious, and military analyses are lucid and specific, and she breaks the limitations of the format for longer boxed essays when necessary. Several maps and plenty of dark but revealing black-and-white photos enhance this eye-opening survey. A good choice for collections needing an economical alternative to A Chronology of Native North American History (Gale, 1994).-John Peters, New York Public Library