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Rating: 
Summary: A superb introduction to The Chaco Phenomenon
Review: Chaco Canyon, site of one of the most remarkable civilizations in North America prior to the European invasion, has long been the subject of speculation, fantasy and intense scientific exploration and study. The mystery of its origins may never be unraveled, which is perhaps the enduring lure of the Chaco Phenomenon. Visit the ruins of an English castle, or a coastal monastery destroyed by Vikings, and the origins and fate are readily available. At Chaco, the Great Houses built from about 850 AD to 11 AD were the highest stone structures built in the Americas until at least the 18th century. For Navajos and New Agers, like the English of 850 AD when called on to explain Roman ruins, the structures were built by gods. The reality is more prosaic, Chaco was built by the ancestors of today's pueblo Indians. The mystery is "Why ?" The Chaco Handbook doesn't attempt to solve the mystery. Instead, it provides a concise handbook of Chacoan studies, illustrated with more than 100 maps, drawings and photos, plus definitions of 250 of the common terms relating to more than a century of exploration and investigations. On the basis of my personal visits beginning in the 1960s, it is the best single volume introduction available to explain Chaco. It's up-to-date, covering some of the latest original and provocative work by longtime professionals such as Thomas Windes and Steve Lekson. It also mildly debunks the sensationalism of Christy Turner who caused a brief flurry of revulsion with his suggestion it was an ancient pueblo cannibalism center. It's a handy reference for anyone who has visited, an invaluable resource for anyone who plans to visit and a perfect introduction even for those unable to visit. Instead of the usual detailed archaeological minutiae, "The Chaco Handbook" is ideal for average readers. Written by two consummate experts with decades of professional experience, it is an excellent introduction to visiting and thinking about Chaco. After reading this book, dozens of other books are available which range from professional reports and analysis of excavated sites to esoteric speculation that varies from Aztec warlords to visitors from outer space. Once again, based on personal experience, this book is the next best thing to living there for several months. Care for some speculation ? Chaco was abandoned after 1100 AD when the Southwest was hit by a decades-long drought; I've studied quality reports of Chaco groundwater which is laced with high levels of natural pollution that can cause mental retardation. The decline roughly coincides with the introduction of the Kachina religion, still a vital part of Zuni and Hopi societies -- two good reasons to start over someplace else. When we consider why people do things -- such as build Chaco in the first place, or abandon it after 250 years -- we're looking at some fundamental ideas about the origins and fate of societies. Why migrate to Chaco and build Great Houses ? Look at it this way -- Why should Europeans migrate to America and build a Great Society ? Chaco is a metaphor for our world. This is the fun of studying and speculating about Chaco, a rich and materialistic society that offered far more than a marginal or subsistence life. The Chaco Phenomenon was a vast construction project lasting hundreds of years, with a profound impact on the regional ecology. It leaves the enduring question, "What inspired these Pueblo Ancestors to such greatness ?" Granted, this book doesn't delve into such idle and sometimes amusing speculation. But, it offers a concise and comprehensive background for those who ponder such issues, and I recommend it as the best introduction available. It's part of the charm of studying Chaco, the temptation (by amateurs at least) to combine facts with "What if ?" speculation. "The Chaco Handbook" is the best introduction you will get.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive Book fails as a travel guide
Review: Ever feel that you let the enthusiasm of a review persuade you to purchase something for the wrong reason? Well I did. Like many of you who will visit this amazing site, I was looking for a book that would help me explore it. This book WILL NOT help you plan your trip nor will you want to pack it with you when you go. What it will do is help you write a term paper on Chaco Canyon. Things I want to know when I read about an area are when to go, how long each area should take and strategies to get the best views and pictures. I figured this information would be intermixed with detailed descriptions on the sites history which would elevate it above a typical travel guide. Wrong. It is as far removed from a travel guide as a book can get. Is this the books fault? No probably not. I should have taken the "Encylopedic Guide" reference more literal. However, all those glowing reviews made me feel I was missing something. I was not. I found out just as much about the sites when I visited the on-site museum and read the much shorter official site book (Chaco - A Cultural Legacy). I also found Sandra Hickman's - Hiking the Southwests Canyon Country, to be a better travel companion then this book. Want to know where the petroglyphs are or how to get to New Alto? Not happening with this book. Want a multi page explanation of masonary styles or find out what Uto-Aztecan is? Then this is your book.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Book fails as a travel guide
Review: Ever feel that you let the enthusiasm of a review persuade you to purchase something for the wrong reason? Well I did. Like many of you who will visit this amazing site, I was looking for a book that would help me explore it. This book WILL NOT help you plan your trip nor will you want to pack it with you when you go. What it will do is help you write a term paper on Chaco Canyon. Things I want to know when I read about an area are when to go, how long each area should take and strategies to get the best views and pictures. I figured this information would be intermixed with detailed descriptions on the sites history which would elevate it above a typical travel guide. Wrong. It is as far removed from a travel guide as a book can get. Is this the books fault? No probably not. I should have taken the "Encylopedic Guide" reference more literal. However, all those glowing reviews made me feel I was missing something. I was not. I found out just as much about the sites when I visited the on-site museum and read the much shorter official site book (Chaco - A Cultural Legacy). I also found Sandra Hickman's - Hiking the Southwests Canyon Country, to be a better travel companion then this book. Want to know where the petroglyphs are or how to get to New Alto? Not happening with this book. Want a multi page explanation of masonary styles or find out what Uto-Aztecan is? Then this is your book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a field guide
Review: Someone's pointed out that this isn't a guide to help you explore Chaco. That's true. This is a book you should probably read before you go there, or even contemplate going there. Visiting Chaco and other ancient ruin sites in the Southwest is an adventure. If you'd like to see these ruins innocent of any understanding of what you are looking at, of the people who built them, of what's known, believed, speculated about concerning their mysteries, don't buy this book. You'll still enjoy seeing it, but you'll do so with approximately the same level of comprehension as the thousands of others who visit there every year. This book won't give you a thorough knowledge of Chaco or the Chacoan Culture. No book will. No 100 books will. The fact is we only know a lot about those people when compared to knowing absolutely nothing about them. But if you want to know what's known and believed about pre-columbians in New Mexico, this is a good place to begin.
Rating:
Summary: Not a field guide
Review: Someone's pointed out that this isn't a guide to help you explore Chaco. That's true. This is a book you should probably read before you go there, or even contemplate going there. Visiting Chaco and other ancient ruin sites in the Southwest is an adventure. If you'd like to see these ruins innocent of any understanding of what you are looking at, of the people who built them, of what's known, believed, speculated about concerning their mysteries, don't buy this book. You'll still enjoy seeing it, but you'll do so with approximately the same level of comprehension as the thousands of others who visit there every year. This book won't give you a thorough knowledge of Chaco or the Chacoan Culture. No book will. No 100 books will. The fact is we only know a lot about those people when compared to knowing absolutely nothing about them. But if you want to know what's known and believed about pre-columbians in New Mexico, this is a good place to begin.
Rating:
Summary: SW PreHistory Comes Alive
Review: This incredibly detailed and cross-referenced "handbook" is also a fine "literary work"that will delight anyone from novice to active archaeologist. Vivian's lifelong professional involvement with Chaco and Hilpert's facile expertise for public information clarity have made a perfect merger of technical information and spellbinding narrative. Add in wonderful illustrations (many of Vivian's photos and drawings) and time lines and charts, and you have everything one needs to understand, and better yet, REMEMBER AND TRACE, up-to-date info on Chaco. This really goes into the heart of the entire realm of SW PreHistory even beyond Chaco culture. As an active "amateur", I use the gloriously wide margins to record notes from all the good references the book provides on Chaco. Others of less intense interest in Chaco have found gift copies especially rewarding: my son's wife has seen only Mesa Verde, yet she found that this book explained general Anasazi life "at last" in a clear and direct manner; my sister fell in love with the Hopi culture on a visit to the 3 Mesas, and she now feels informed "about the whole idea of the Prehistory of the area" (Hopi and Zuni have their own topics in the book); and my 94 yr old Aunt was here in the 50's and loves SW PreHistory -- but now is quite blind -- so her daughter reads from this handbook to UPDATE her on the whole info range and latest Theory base of the Anasazi/Chaco world. She says the narrative is SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND that she can "build the pictures in her mind". We have been given a fine gift from Vivian and Hilpert. AND CHECK OUT VIVIAN'S LATEST BOOK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. It includes -- for young people and adults-- a charming personal history on Gwinn Vivian.
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