I teach English as a Second Language in Taiwan. Unlike most books about linguistics, this book helped me understand "what happens when people talk", and that has made me a more effective teacher. I re-read it several times a year to keep its insights fresh in my mind. Each re-reading reveals new depths of understanding. In spite of being almost 10 years old, I still regard as the best of its kind.

I've been on a kick recently to read all the books I can get my hands on pertaining to language. I found this one in the philosophy/linguistics section of my local bookstore. It subsequently sat in my "to-read" pile (which now numbers around 1,462 books) for a few months. When I finally picked it up I was floored by the amount of fascinating information it contained about English and its similarities to the world's other languages. The rather surprising but clearly correct conclusion of the book is that no matter how weird, foreign, alien, or just bizarre other languages may sound to us, human languages all share the same basic means and mechanics of expression! None are more inherently "difficult" than others, as is borne out by the ease with which infants in every speech community of the world pick up their native language with the same ease and celerity. The author also blows to smithereens the notion that English or any other language is "better" or "more expressive" than any other, and demonstrates that English prevails as the world's preferred language largely as the result of geopolitical factors, rather than its "superiority". In fact, whether a group of people speak English, Ancient Greek, Swahili, Apache, Russian, Chinese, Egyptian, Burmese, Polynesian, French, Latin or Eskimo language , every one of these speech communities possesses a tongue capable of rich expression, poetic nuance, literature, subtlety, and flights of imagination. Where they differ is that each one, is custom-suited to the physical realities and the cultural traditions of the particular place, and represent the best means for the populace there to communicate and transact business. So much for the notion that when European explorers "discovered" indigenous communities in their journeys, that the natives spoke "primitive" tongues! This implication, with the benefit of modern linguistic knowledge and hindsight, was simply racist and chauvinistic. Did I mention that this book is written in a lively and entertaining manner, and is great fun and a very entertaining read? Well it is! I also very much enjoyed the chapters about verbal dueling, meta-language, and attempts to teach language to animals. If you are a word buff, I recommend this book to you wholeheartedly. Enjoy!

An intriguing overview of pre-Colombian American history, and how Europeans did not necessarily bring "civilization" to the "New World". Farb weaves a deep knowledge of his subject with a casual style that leaves the reader wanting to visit the sites, meet the people and experience more. Should be required reading for every high school and college student - and Congressman, Senator and President - in America.

The late Peter Farb's book made a great impression when I read it over twenty years ago and I frequently refer to its insights in my lectures on Environmental history.

Native Americans, like the Scythians, Sarmatians, Magyars, Mongols, Turks, etc., developed a common nomadic culture on the Plains once they had stolen the horse from the Spanish invaders. Like the cultures that proceeded theirs by some three millennia, they had a common tool-kit and life-style, while maintaining different languages and social structures.

Mr. Farb would have been horrified by the thoughtless change of Sioux for Comanche in the filming of the book, 'Dances With Wolves,' for the Sioux were descendants of the Woodland, settled peoples of the East, while the Comanche got the horse earlier, but were Uto-Aztecan nomads of the desert. A particular culture was a mixture and synthesis of all historical ingredients: Comanche lived in small groups that rarely coalesced into large military formations; the Sioux and Blackfeet lived in small goups when hunting, but were confederated into powerful military and economic organizations. In short they are as different as the Lithuanians are from the Romans.

That same film also created unnecessary misunderstandings that Farb's book tried to dispell: he displayed the common human origins of Indian and Western behaviors. The name 'Dances with Wolves' is not at all strange when you remember Mozart's first name Wolfgang.

The natives who traded Manhattan usufruct rights for glass beads were acting in the best traditions of human capitalism: glass beads were unknown to the New World and were visually far superior to found diamonds or rubies. The native trader going inland would get a very good return on each bead and the inland trader going further into the forest could justify giving that return because he would get an even greater return on his investment; thus, there was a very important rationality behind the American Natives' agreement to Dutch terms. They were only completely in the clutches of the Dutch when a glass bead factory was built in New Amsterdam!

Farb shows all enculturated individuals to be human and worthy of both admiration and scorn. It is a great lesson to learn toward the end of a millennium fraught with misunderstanding and the lack of formulation of basic principles for the evaluation of the Self and the Other.

I hope this book will be re-edited, the prose is wonderful -I couldn't put it down- and without falling into the 'Noble Savage' trap, Farb shows how wonderful life might have been in most Amerindian cultures before Columbus. This book re-educates.

Peter Farb's book should be brought back into print: unfortunately, he's dead and so there's nobody to promote the book so probably no publisher will be interested. However, you'll find much of his work resurrected in Daniel Quinn's book "Ishmael" and Thom Hartmann's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," both brilliant works available here on amazon.com. All are highly recommended...