John D. Baldwin’s Ancient America surveys the archaeological evidence for pre-Columbian civilizations in North and South America, examining mound builders, ancient cities, and material remains that fascinated nineteenth-century scholars and the general public alike. Writing in 1872, Baldwin sought to apply emerging archaeological methods to the question of who built the earthworks and ruins scattered across the American continent before European contact.
While some of Baldwin’s interpretations have been superseded by later scholarship, the book is a valuable document of how Americans in the 1870s thought about indigenous prehistory and the deep past of the continent they had settled. Download this free EPUB for a fascinating window into early American archaeology.