Rating: 
Summary: A lively guide to the decipherment of Mayan writing
Review: Michael Coe has been involved with Mayan writing for fifty years. The story he tells in "Breaking the Maya Code" involves his friends, his colleagues, and--in a couple of cases--his academic foes. The story is a scientific one, but Coe provides a look at the human history too.Mayan writing has only really started to give up its secrets in the last twenty five years. Coe's primary thesis (for which he makes a convincing case) is that there are two reason it took so long: first, there was no large, widely available corpus of Mayan writing for epigraphers to work on; second, there was a widely held belief among Mayanists that the writing did not represent spoken language, but instead represented "not Maya words or construction, but universal ideas". He spends some time on the story of Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian writing in the early nineteenth century, in order to be able to draw parallels with the state of play in Mayanist studies. Then he moves on through the history of the subject, with short biographies of many of the key academic figures, bringing the story up to 1992. There's a short postscript for the 1999 edition. Coe makes no bones about the academic in-fighting. A couple of the reviews below object to his tone: he is very clear about who he thinks obstructed the field (Eric Thompson, for example), and who he thinks was critical to the successess (Yuri Knorosov). His comments about Thompson, while sometimes affectionate, attribute much of the delay in understanding Mayan writing to the deadening effect of Thompson's influence. Thompson, a well-respected and very influential Mayanist, believed that the glyphs had no relationship to any spoken Mayan language, and poured scorn (Coe quotes some reviews) on those who disagreed. In the end, I think Coe gets the balance about right. There really is in-fighting in academe, and what he shows of it doesn't obscure the excitement of the decipherment. Coe tells a whole story: it's his personal view, but it's a view from the inside. He's enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and he writes well. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent History of Maya Glyph Decipherment
Review: Michael Coe is one of the leading authorities on the Maya and the Olmec. In this publication, he clearly describes the process and history of decipherment of the Maya Glyphs. Some knowledge of linguistics will help in the reading, and in places there is some complexity in the arguments proffered. However it is a facinating read for the student of Mesoamerican Epigraphy.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating archeo-linguistic detective story
Review: No matter how fine its archeological record, any ancient civilization must remain something of a mystery until its language is made comprehensible. This book tells the story of the long, twisting path that led to the decipherment of the script of the great Maya civilization, which flourished over a thousand years ago in present-day Mexico and Guatemala. The decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs was largely the work of one man: Champollion. In contrast, the cracking of the Maya code was the result of two centuries of work by a number of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, each with their own prejudices, conceits, and hypotheses. In general, the debate centered on whether the Maya script was "ideographic" (i.e., each symbol representing an idea) or hieroglyphic (a combination of logographic and phonetic elements). These two poles were represented by the intellectual rivalry between the archeologist Eric Thompson (who supported the former claim) and the Russian linguist and ethnologist Yuri Knorosov (who supported the latter). Coe dwells on the role of personality in this story and the way history and culture impinged on the protagonists; the degree of irrationality, egoism, and political wrangling may surprise those expecting a tale of detached, truth-seeking scholars. A key part was played by luck and coincidence. My favorite example concerns Knorosov's introduction to Mayan studies: as a soldier in the Red Army during the final battle of Berlin in 1945, he entered the burning National Library and snatched a book at random out of the flames. It turned out to be a one-volume edition of ancient Mayan writings (the Paris, Dresden and Madrid codices). If you're looking for a hero, says Coe, Knorosov comes closest to being it; but the decipherment was really a collaborative, long-term effort: a project in which "linguistics and art history joined hands with epigraphy." A fascinating story, and well-written too.
Rating:
Summary: Some of these reviews miss the point
Review: One reviewer wrote "There is some interesting information here, but the snide tone in which it's presented gets to be pretty hard to take." Another complains the book didn't enlighten her on the Maya. Both miss the point. This is not a general history of the Maya. Coe, himself, has written an excellent book of that type, one he keeps current with frequent updates. What this book is a chronicle of a great intellectual endeavor that resulted on a remarkable breakthrough. It does a fine job of explaining the process to laymen. And it offers a unique, unvarnished insight into the process itself. This is not the Hollywood version that glosses over the real events. No one reading this will perpetuate the sort of mistake about what happened while learning to read Mayan glyphs that other reviews here make about the decipherment of Egyptian writing, for example... that Champollion did it unaided. It is a book about a group effort that stalled for decades then took off in the right direction which explains how that happened and why, written by an man whose basic balance and fairness caused him to know and be friends with all of the parties involved at a time when, for example, knowing or even espousing the Russian scholar's views could get you, at the very least, trashed by the powers then in charge. [I know; I know Dr. Coe and knew some of the early players]. Dr. Coe's position and unique personality protected him from the consequences lesser scholars, like me, would have suffered had we taken his balanced view. The book is not gossip, it is a remarkably fair chronicle of a great discovery which weaves in the stories of the people who both made the discovery and also delayed it. True science isn't done the way 30's Hollywood films portray it. I cannot recommend it more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Some of these reviews miss the point
Review: One reviewer wrote "There is some interesting information here, but the snide tone in which it's presented gets to be pretty hard to take." Another complains the book didn't enlighten her on the Maya. Both miss the point. This is not a general history of the Maya. Coe, himself, has written an excellent book of that type, one he keeps current with frequent updates. What this book is a chronicle of a great intellectual endeavor that resulted on a remarkable breakthrough. It does a fine job of explaining the process to laymen. And it offers a unique, unvarnished insight into the process itself. This is not the Hollywood version that glosses over the real events. No one reading this will perpetuate the sort of mistake about what happened while learning to read Mayan glyphs that other reviews here make about the decipherment of Egyptian writing, for example... that Champollion did it unaided. It is a book about a group effort that stalled for decades then took off in the right direction which explains how that happened and why, written by an man whose basic balance and fairness caused him to know and be friends with all of the parties involved at a time when, for example, knowing or even espousing the Russian scholar's views could get you, at the very least, trashed by the powers then in charge. [I know; I know Dr. Coe and knew some of the early players]. Dr. Coe's position and unique personality protected him from the consequences lesser scholars, like me, would have suffered had we taken his balanced view. The book is not gossip, it is a remarkably fair chronicle of a great discovery which weaves in the stories of the people who both made the discovery and also delayed it. True science isn't done the way 30's Hollywood films portray it. I cannot recommend it more highly.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to know the basics of the decipherment.
Review: People looking answers on the how the decipherment was acomplished will definite like this book. Mr. Coe takes the reader in a complete historic narration on how, the many people involved in deciphering of the Maya glyph, did it. He gives credit to those scientist who proposed the correct ideas and explain why those who didn't where wrong. Mr Coe also explains in detail how the glyphs are to be read. As Associated Press summarizes "Mr Coe takes time and pains to make clear to the uninitiated reader the obscure and complicated aspects of Maya lore, and does so with a light touch that bespeaks of a gifted teacher and writer" end of quote.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to know the basics of the decipherment.
Review: People looking answers on the how the decipherment was acomplished will definite like this book. Mr. Coe takes the reader in a complete historic narration on how, the many people involved in deciphering of the Maya glyph, did it. He gives credit to those scientist who proposed the correct ideas and explain why those who didn't where wrong. Mr Coe also explains in detail how the glyphs are to be read. As Associated Press summarizes "Mr Coe takes time and pains to make clear to the uninitiated reader the obscure and complicated aspects of Maya lore, and does so with a light touch that bespeaks of a gifted teacher and writer" end of quote.
Rating: 
Summary: really irritating
Review: The actual details of how the written Mayan language was deciphered and what it was found to say make up a surprisingly small portion of this book. The author's real passion, apparently, is for the politics behind the decipherment and not the decipherment itself. There is some interesting information here, but the snide tone in which it's presented gets to be pretty hard to take.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling and useful
Review: The already-posted reviews give a good summary. I bought the book to read in preparation for a visit to the Mayan site at Copan and found it enthralling. It also introduced me to the archaeologists who recovered the cultural history of the descendants of the Maya (their names are on a monument in the town square). It gave me a better sense of how much we know and how we know it, which made our visit much richer.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling and useful
Review: The already-posted reviews give a good summary. I bought the book to read in preparation for a visit to the Mayan site at Copan and found it enthralling. It also introduced me to the archaeologists who recovered the cultural history of the descendants of the Maya (their names are on a monument in the town square). It gave me a better sense of how much we know and how we know it, which made our visit much richer.
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