Well-selected quotations, well-captioned illustrations. It looks like the text was worked over by an illiterate editor, though. Favorite line: Archaeologists found that the spearhead could penetrate the tough hide of circus elephants that had died of natural causes. One assumes that the elephants that had been put down because they had killed their trainers must have had skin far too tough to be penetrated by that spearhead. There is also a sad conflation of primacy with discovery. But one assumes that Freedman himself may not be to blame. He helpfully provides a selected bibliography, which may be better. ( )

Who was first is a non-fiction book about different theories on who literally discovered North and South America first. The theories range from the Chinese, Ice age Europeans, Africans, Siberians, and Vikings. Some people just stick with the belief that Columbus discovered America, but there were Natives obviously living there generations before he arrived. One reason people believed the Chinese discovered America first because Natives in Central America had stone carvings very similar to the ones in China, and some rocks on the West Coast with mysterious carvings that many believed explained the trek across the Pacific ocean to America from China. Vikings around the beginning of the first millennia sailed from Iceland and colonized Greenland, but soon went further to find land with plentiful building material, as Greenland had barely any trees. One viking named Leif Ericson sailed near the coast of the top of Canada, and went even as far as Quebec. He colonized the area a short while, and soon left after having fierce battles with the Indians in the area.
Not much is known about who discovered America first, but some theories go all the way back to the last ice age, when the land bridge under the Bering Strait was over sea. This is a difficult topic, because there were an extinct people called the Clovis, who made serrated spear heads very similar to the ancient Solutreans who lived in Spain and France thousands of years ago. The spearheads were effective and deadly on large prey like mammoths and Sabertooth tigers. A pile of mammoth bones next to one of these spearheads was found in New Mexico, proving that there were people living in America before the Ice Age ended. There were also different types of tools found around the East Coast, very similar to ones found in Africa. The topic on who discovered America first is still controversial today. I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to anyone interested in this topic.

Many generations of American school children were taught that Columbus discovered America, and a holiday reminds us every October. But historical investigation in recent years has shown us otherwise. There is evidence that adventurers, explorers, traders, and nomads from various parts of the globe set foot on American soil long before 1492. And expeditions that landed in the Americas reported people already living there—indicating that America had been “discovered” before.

Russell Freedman brings his legendary skills as researcher and storyteller to this fresh and intriguing look at the American past. Colorful legends and first-person accounts are woven into the riveting narrative, which also illuminates the way historians and mapmakers have gathered, evaluated, and recorded information throughout the ages.

Partner text with" Encounter" by Jane Yolen
http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/Who-Was-First/9780618663910 (summary)

Russell Freedman seeks to show his readers that, despite what we know or what is being taught about the discovery of the Americas, Christopher Columbus was not the first person to set foot on the land. Freedman begins his book with the widely known story of Christopher Columbus and his voyages to the "New World". In the following chapters, he looks to examine different people that came before Columbus. He goes backwards in time, starting with Columbus in 1492, then China in early 1400's, Lief the Lucky four hundreds years before that, Native Americans hundreds years before that, and he ends with the question "Who really discovered America?" and looks at prehistoric evidence to show that people have been here all along.
I think this book would be a good tool to show students that the history of the Americas starts long before Columbus set foot on these lands. The history of these lands is just as vast and important as the history of the rest of the world. ( )