One of those books that touches every aspect of life. Definitely an all-time favorite of mine.

This book was incredible to me. Europeans came to the Americas in 1492, and immediately began to take all they could, starting with the mining of precious metals - gold and silver. This book explains the huge influence the Indian culture had on Europe and the US, starting with an immense infusion of silver, which brought silver coins/capitalism to the people, on to the potato which saved the lives and increased the populations of many countries, notably Ireland and Poland, herbal medicines, which the Old World had very little experience with, all the way to agriculture, architecture, and government - our constitution was strongly influenced by the Iroqouis nations. Even industrialization and corporations were modeled on what was happening in the New World in those first few centuries after Europeans came. Totally filled in a gap in my knowledge of the huge influence the New World Indians had on Europe and the US.

Weatherford describes how technologies and practices developed by Native cultures pre-1492 - including democracy, tobacco, and kayaks - later spread all over the world.

How did the Indians of the Americas transform the world? They domesticated potatoes and maize that became staple foods of large areas of Eurasia and Africa; they discovered the healing power of the cinchona bark against malaria and of berries against scurvy; their labor mined the silver that financed the commercial revolution in early modern Europe; their political organization influenced European philosophers from Montaigne to Marx and Engels.

Overall, I found this book really interesting. The author gathered a lot of evidence for his ideas of Native American culture and its influence in the wider world. The chapters on the foods and medicines were so informative. I did feel that the author took things too far at times when bringing his evidence into his larger thesis. The information is proof enough sometimes. I learned a lot but I took some of his conclusions with a grain of salt.

I can't say enough good things about this book. There are many excellent works on what evils befell the native peoples of the Americas at the hands of their conquerors, but the ways in which their technologies, foods, social and political systems revolutionized the world have been largely ignored. This book makes a compelling case that most of the things we associate with modernity and with European refinement actually originated in the Americas and from native peoples.

Only read one chapter for an assignment but pretty interesting. 2.5 stars

I read the 2010 version that includes a preface from the author, which was nice, but none of the original 1988 text was updated, so beware that some of the information is old, incorrect and/or outdated. (As far as incorrect, he at one time mentions that "most Africans have a natural immunity to malaria." This cannot be accurate as Sub-Saharan Africans account for 89% of all malaria cases and 91% of all malaria deaths, according to the CDC.)

However, when Weatherford sticks to the main focus of the book, he provides a lot of very good information that deserves to be known about how native people of the Americas contributed their resources and knowledge to the world (or, most often, had it taken from them). A good primer on the topic, but it really needs a complete update and revision.

Indian Givers delves into a topic probably many Americans already know but have chosen to ignore or repress: the contributions that the first people of this country gave to the world, sometimes unwillingly, for the betterment of the modern society we have today. Author Jack Weatherford does a very thorough job digging into historical research to find just how much we take for granted today was something invented and/or perfected by American Indians.

Everything from agriculture to food to medicine has its roots in American Indian technologies, and so many people are none the wiser for it. I'd heard of some of these contributions myself, but I'd never read anything as detailed into their origins as Indian Givers was, which was very informative and impressive. It's not always presented in the best ways, specifically that the book focuses quite a bit on the early years of European discovery and not how (or if, even) those discoveries are still relevant today. I would've preferred more purely political contributions, or at least critical analysis of how the United States government, specifically, incorporated American Indian ideals into their own infrastructures — this is touched on somewhat, but as much as I would've liked.

Plus, parts of the book drag, specifically, when Weatherford starts every single chapter with an anecdote about himself on his journeys to research (or something) for this book. I felt he had a difficult time connecting his own travels and experiences with the research he actually used for the rest of the chapters — he could have broadened the historical context and not included first-person narrative about himself. Consequently it took me several weeks to finish this book because I could barely slog through some of the information he gave.

It is clear Weatherford did extensive research, which shows — and becomes more interesting — in the latter half of the book, where some of the political and economic effect come into play. I particularly liked the part about Indian medicines that were legitimate cures/helps to diseases before Europeans came and wiped them all out with deadlier diseases. Many modern vaccines we have come from Native American uses, which was something I'd heard before but Weatherford made it more clear. And the structure of the U.S. government being based on the Iroquois League was also an insightful tidbit, as were all of the other sections that credited American Indians for the most basic infrastructures we take for granted today — but without their perfection by the Native Americans of this hemisphere, we wouldn't be nearly as advanced as we are.

This book made some good points but got bogged down in the minutia. Then it seemed to go off on a Marxist tangent. While I don't disagree that Marx and other revolutionaries that followed were influenced by the Iroquois confederacy, I think the author spent too much time on it and seemed to be promoting it. I did enjoy reading about how the discovery of America changed the world economy. It also never really occurred to me that the riches found in many old European churches and castles were all pillaged from the New World. I'll give it three stars for research alone.

Native Americans (non-European natives who were in North and South America before Columbus) "gave" the world many things: medicine, silver, federal government, etc. Weatherford's book is well-researched and certainly sensitive to the plight of the natives. Strange book in that Weatherford does not provide an introduction - he just jumps right in. The book is disturbing because the natives really did not "give" these things to the world; the things were taken and the natives were treated very poorly. Thought-provoking.

This is a well-organized and detailed account of the many contributions Native Americans gave to the world. It is also the sad history of their near extermination by European conquerers. The author, Jack Weatherford, is an anthropologist who presents the material from the point of view of one observing a number of cultures and the influences each had on the other. He travels the globe to show how far-reaching were the influences of Indian contributions in so many diverse areas.

I was aware of much of this very sad history from other sources, but there were a number of Native American contributions I had not known about until listening to this audiobook. From the effects of plundered gold and silver on the development of the mercantile system in Europe to the formation of democracy in the United States government after the Revolution, Native Americans gave us far more than most of us have been told. Weatherford discusses foods that literally changed the face of Europe, medicines that we use even today, and so much more.

It is worth the time to read this book in print form or listen to the audiobook. There is a lot in it that we should all learn.