First Peoples in a New World

Colonizing Ice Age America

By: David J. Meltzer

Narrated by: Christopher Prince

More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining discriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past. The book is published by University of California Press.

©2009 The Regents of the University of California (P)2011 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A natural storyteller, David Meltzer gives us a vivid picture of both the colonizing bands of humans who moved into the Americas and the researchers who followed their footsteps from Alaska to Chile. This is an insider's account, told with a keen eye and sense of humor, as if Meltzer were there when discoveries were made and when disputes were aired - as, indeed, he often was." (Ann Gibbons, author of The First Human)

Very informatine

Informative. The detail sometimes very technical provided context and was very helpful. The naration was will done.

A Fantastic Dive

No issues with the narrator for me. The wealth of information provides for multiple, I’d say necessary, re-listens and bookmarks. It being abridged notwithstanding, I highly recommend picking this up along with the 2nd edition printed book if able.

Can also search the author on any podcast app. Has done several interviews, A Life In Ruins podcast had one that is worth hunting down, among others.

great read, learned alot

Absorbed alot of great and very detailed information, if you take interest in the subject it's very easy for the narrator to carry you through the book. Also read the book and I feel like hearing a guy speed through it clean helps understanding as well

Riveting story!

If you could sum up First Peoples in a New World in three words, what would they be?

Interesting information and its not complete

What was one of the most memorable moments of First Peoples in a New World?

This book was very interesting but the part about grasses changing and that being toxic to the mega fauna as apposed to human incursion was particularly so since most of what I have read to date points to human hunting pressure as the culprit.

What three words best describe Christopher Prince’s performance?

Mr. Prince reads too fast to get the full picture. This is intricate and complex. The geography alone encompasses half the world. He leaves no space between sentences to absorb information.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

epic adventure

Any additional comments?

Re-record and have the reader add better inflection, better timing and pacing.

Great book, horrible audio

The information contained in the book is intriguing and informative. Many questions of how and why people came to the Americas are thoughtfully answered.
The audible version of this book is almost unbearable. The reader is monotonous using no inflection or emotion. It is almost robotic.

First Peoples - Fantastic

This is a fantastic summary of our present understanding of early human life in America. It not only gave me a good summary of migration to and through America, but also the science behind this understanding. Though the explanations got quite technical at times (genetics, for example), I never felt overwhelmed. Both the writing and reading were great.

leaves room for imagination.

What I loved about this book was Meltzer's way of conveying what was possible to actually know via archeological research and what would likely stay in the realm of speculation. I also loved the fact that the author seemingly stayed open to all ideas and theories on the peopling of the Americas should enough evidence arise to support them, rather than just the same old "this is how it is" dogma that's present in a lot of scientific disciplines today.

so informative

this is great book with lots of detail but still easy to understand highly recommend

No Issues with the Narrator

There seems to be a lot of prominent complaints about the narrator, despite the overall high ratings for this audiobook. Personally, I had no problems with him. There are a few slightly awkward pauses in his reading, so be aware of that if that's a big deal for you, but I hardly noticed them. Other reviews have called him monotonous, which he definitely isn't. This is an academic book, so you can hardly compare it to a prose novel with emotional dialogue. He might have a favored note to end his sentences on, but again, I barely noticed once I got used to it.

As far as the book itself, I really enjoyed it. It gets quite technical for a couple of chapters in the middle, but the info is useful for understanding the rest of it. Would definitely recommend.

Why are you TALKING. TO. ME. LIKE. THIS.?

The narrator is a brutal listen. It’s a fascinating book, and I enjoyed the subject matter.