Author : David P. Henige
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 9780806130446
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (34 download)
Book Synopsis Numbers from Nowhere by : David P. Henige
Download or read book Numbers from Nowhere written by David P. Henige and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past forty years an entirely new paradigm has developed regarding the contact population of the New World. Proponents of this new theory argue that the American Indian population in 1492 was ten, even twenty, times greater than previous estimates. In Numbers From Nowhere David Henige argues that the data on which these high counts are based are meager and often demonstrably wrong. Drawing on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Henige illustrates the use and abuse of numerical data throughout history. He shows that extrapolation of numbers is entirely subjective, however masked it may be by arithmetic, and he questions what constitutes valid evidence in historical and scientific scholarship.