House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 834 ratings

Price: 21.83

Last update: 12-12-2024


About this item

In this landmark work on the Anasazi tribes of the Southwest, naturalist Craig Childs dives head-on into the mysteries of this vanished people.

The various tribes that made up the Anasazi people converged on Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) during the 11th century to create a civilization hailed as "the Las Vegas of its day", a flourishing cultural center that attracted pilgrims from far and wide, and a vital crossroads of the prehistoric world. By the 13th century, however, Chaco's vibrant community had disappeared without a trace.

Was it drought? Pestilence? War? Forced migration, mass murder, or suicide? Conflicting theories have abounded for years, capturing the North American imagination for eons.

Join Craig Childs as he draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as a lifetime of exploration in the forbidden landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery. He takes us from Chaco Canyon to the highlands of Mesa Verde, to the Mongollon Rim; to a contemporary Zuni community where tribal elders maintain silence about the fate of their Lost Others; and to the largely unexplored foothills of the Sierra Madre in Mexico, where abundant remnants of Anasazi culture lie yet to be uncovered.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

AREADER
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read With Interesting Personal Point of Views
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2007
This is the first book by Craig Childs that I've read. I will say it is an excellent book on the Anasazi. Craig has spent his whole life in the desert Southwest and appears to be quite knowledgeable about his subject. If you are the least bit interested in knowing a bit more about the Anasazi but don't want to read a "dry" scientific book about the subject, this is "the book" for you. Craig has travelled, worked and talked with many southwest Archaeologists who study the Anasazi. His discussions on the Anasazi are not boring and dry and his writing style is superb. I have a passing interest in the subject matter and this is one of the newest books on the subject and based on reviews of his other books, bought this one. I'm glad I did. Craig covers some controversial areas in regards to the Anasazi and where they went. They didn't disappear, their ancestors are still here, spread out over the southwest. He hits on a few quite creditabal possibilities and presents material to support them. I not being an expert on the subject but none the less interested and with some of my own ideas, I think Craig is on to something in regards to some of the reasons for the abandonment of the ancient sites across the entire southwest not just the Four Corners area commonly attributed to the Anasazi. Craig's descriptions of his backcountry travels are excellent and gives the sense that you are there with him which makes it even more enjoyable to read. This one is a keeper which I know I will read over and over again.
CLF
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! Bought a second one for my daughter!
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2024
I have had a decades old fascination with the Chacoan culture and the areas surround it. This book is a great addition to anyone's library that appreciates a scholarly approach to the sensationalized mystery of Chaco Canyon, its outliers and culture. In my opinion the author uses facts and common sense to provide theory of the culture's transition, rather than the "they just disappeared" approach that has been put forth for so long.
R. M. Peterson
4.0 out of 5 stars Highly informative, yet far from perfect
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2008
I am glad I read HOUSE OF RAIN and I can easily recommend it to others interested in the "Anasazi" (the controversy over this name is discussed at some length in the book) and related peoples of the Southwest. Nonetheless, I am somewhat ambivalent about this book, more so than with many I have read.

On the plus side, HOUSE OF RAIN probably is the most comprehensive non-academic book dealing with the Anasazi and related peoples I have encountered, and one of the most readable. It traces the Anasazi and their extensive archaeological record from Chaco in New Mexico, north to Aztec and Mesa Verde, then west to the Utah canyonlands, then south to Kayenta and Antelope Mesa in Arizona, further south to the Mogollon Rim along the New Mexico/Arizona border, and even further south into the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Childs discusses in a non-pedantic fashion quite a few of the theories about the Anasazi, their way of life, their artistic, engineering, and organizational/political accomplishments, and their ultimate fate. Moreover, he is to be commended for not being deterred by political correctness from discussing such matters as cannibalism, warfare and slavery, ritual violence, and dementia and hallucinations induced by an exclusively corn-based diet. Nonetheless, he clearly is highly respectful of the Anasazi, and he communicates a sense of wonder and awe.

On the other hand, certain aspects of the book are annoying or distracting, at least to me. Foremost among them is the author's overly "personal" narrative, all-too-generously sprinkling the book with anecdotes from his travels through the Southwest as he tracks the Anasazi. I recognize that he wants to establish his credentials and also to avoid a dry, academic tone, but many of his anecdotes are banal in the extreme (for example, many of the interactions between he and fellow travellers or he and his family). Childs also too frequently lapses into sappiness or melodrama, leading me to fear that perhaps his account may be overly imaginative, too much the product of a romantic mind bent on understanding and explaining where anything close to absolute understanding and explanation simply is not possible. Finally, given the numerous accounts of large, carefully engineered and built structures, even cities, many of which were occupied for only a few decades, I would have appreciated some discussion of how these massive construction projects were accomplished.

Despite the (to me) annoying flaws of HOUSE OF RAIN, the book is highly informative, definitely worth reading, and probably worth returning to.
Thomas F. Rosage
5.0 out of 5 stars Totally engrossing
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2008
Craig Childs is a masterful writer. He makes you want to be right there with him in the wild desert lands of the southwest. He clearly is very knowledgeable about the Anasazi civilization. Plus, the reader is treated to numerous instances where Childs enlivens the text with some beautifully crafted language.

Childs has been compared to Edward Abbey, which is apt; however, he conveys his love of the desert with less stridency and a Zen-like ability to see with the disciplined eye of dispassionate observation.

I often marveled at his fearlessness to undertake very physically challenging excursions through the imposing desert environment where water [or the lack of] defines survival or death.

I envy him for the rare, beautiful and enigmatic sights he has seen. Surely he has experienced something rare and privileged in our shrinking world. He has seen many sights that have not been glimpsed by another human being for hundreds of years.

I think he has done a wonderful job developing a valid hypothesis regarding the alleged disappearance of the Anasazi. The solid technical and scientific knowledge he imparts in this book is a welcome relief from the popular junk science one frequently finds on almost any intriguing subject these days. The book has an extensive bibliography documenting the vast store of current knowledge concerning the Anasazi. No extraterrestrial explanations were proposed in the writing of this book!

Not only did this book capture my imagination; I learned a lot about the desert southwest, the Anasazi culture and the mysteries that still remain to be discovered.

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