1491 by Charles C. Mann
Published 2005 · 688 pages · 140,000 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · History, Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is 1491 to read?
1491 scores 27 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
- Archaeological and ecological terminology. Clear for a general audience.
- Sentence structure: 30 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Scientific evidence synthesized into a sweeping historical argument.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Dense with archaeological, genetic, and ecological evidence.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Thematic chapters building a cumulative argument.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- 1491 itself is a symbolic date marking the eve of destruction.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Mann writes with engaged curiosity rather than irony.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Builds to a clear revisionist thesis.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Three parts covering population, civilization, and ecology.
How 1491 is regarded
1491 holds a literary regard score of 49 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.