America Before - by Graham Hancock (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Instant New York Times Bestseller!

Was an advanced civilization lost to history in the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age? Graham Hancock, the internationally bestselling author, has made it his life's work to find out--and in America Before, he draws on the latest archaeological and DNA evidence to bring his quest to a stunning conclusion.

We've been taught that North and South America were empty of humans until around 13,000 years ago - amongst the last great landmasses on earth to have been settled by our ancestors. But new discoveries have radically reshaped this long-established picture and we know now that the Americas were first peopled more than 130,000 years ago - many tens of thousands of years before human settlements became established elsewhere.

Hancock's research takes us on a series of journeys and encounters with the scientists responsible for the recent extraordinary breakthroughs. In the process, from the Mississippi Valley to the Amazon rainforest, he reveals that ancient "New World" cultures share a legacy of advanced scientific knowledge and sophisticated spiritual beliefs with supposedly unconnected "Old World" cultures. Have archaeologists focused for too long only on the "Old World" in their search for the origins of civilization while failing to consider the revolutionary possibility that those origins might in fact be found in the "New World"?

America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization is the culmination of everything that millions of readers have loved in Hancock's body of work over the past decades, namely a mind-dilating exploration of the mysteries of the past, amazing archaeological discoveries and profound implications for how we lead our lives today.

Review Quotes

"A treasure." --Joe Rogan on Graham Hancock

"A fascinating, alternative version of prehistory. America Before, detailed and wide-ranging, turns what was myth and legend into a new story of the past." --Daily Mail

Praise for Graham Hancock's previous books:

"Hancock's passionate, detailed prose transports us around the globe and across millennia in an accessible and direct manner." --New Dawn Magazine

"Ingenious." --Kirkus Reviews

"I'm deeply immersed still in Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods." I do so recommend this book. Hancock is an enchanting writer, and such a curious and thoughtful and intuitive investigator of the mysteries of lost civilizations and archaeological mysteries." --Anne Rice, NYT bestselling author of The Vampire Chronicles

"Hancock does a magnificent job of proving beyond reasonable doubt that an advanced civilization, which flourished during the Ice Age, was destroyed in global cataclysms between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago." --Atlantis Rising on Magicians of the Gods

"A reading experience of pure gold...History buffs, Bible scholars, anyone who likes a great intellectual detective yarn will plunge into The Sign and the Seal and not come up for air until the end." --Seattle Times on The Sign and the Seal

"Intriguing and entertaining and sturdy enough to give a long pause for thought." --Kirkus Reviews on Fingerprints of the Gods

"Readers will hugely enjoy their quest in these pages of inspired storytelling."-The Times of London

About the Author

GRAHAM HANCOCK is the author of the major international non-fiction bestsellers Magicians of the Gods, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, The Message of the Sphinx, Heaven's Mirror, Underworld and Supernatural, and of the epic adventure novels Entangled and War God. His books have sold more than seven million copies worldwide and have been translated into thirty languages. His public lectures, radio and TV appearances, including two major TV series, Quest For The Lost Civilisation and Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, as well as his strong presence on the internet, have put his ideas before audiences of tens of millions. He has become recognised as an unconventional thinker who raises resonant questions about humanity's past and about our present predicament.