I am vastly disappointed in the outcome of, “America before Americans” by Manav Lakhani for multiple reasons. I first volunteered to review this book because I love learning through others’ eyes, but I have a hard time making it through normal history books.
That is why I was looking forward to Lakhani’s book. It sounded like a great history story regarding the truth behind indigenous people and the first cities in America. Not the love story we learn about with Columbus sailing the seven seas.
The prologue was a little repetitive and raised some red flags, but I didn’t give it a second thought and by the end of the prologue, it had grabbed my attention. Even with the oddly short incomplete sentences and grammatical errors.
It starts with North America and how it has been here for a long time, but who discovered it first?
According to this book, it was indigenous people, who were the first people to walk across the Beringia with the mammoths into North America. It then goes into how the natural changes of the continent led to the first cities that were built and what the archeologists have found and believe to be true.
However, I was only able to make it through chapter two before I realized what exactly I was reading. Lakhani let me down, I realized that this was not a book of indigenous history, but instead an AI summary of cliff notes from other people’s books regarding such history.
I couldn’t believe it at first, but the format, grammatical errors, misspelled words and the lack of citations didn’t sit well with me when a book is being sold in well-known bookstores.
Lakhani presents this book as his first history book he has ever written.
In one of his Facebook posts he says, “I’ve spent countless hours researching forgotten civilizations, ancient cultures, and the hidden stories of North America that many people never learn about in school.” He went on to say, “This passion led me to write my first book, America before Americans. On this page, I’ll be sharing fascinating historical facts, ancient mysteries, and surprising discoveries from the past.”
It sounds amazing. A history enthusiast and independent author writing about his passion. What’s the catch? When writing about facts you are supposed to use the Chicago manual of style footnotes, endnotes, and a bibliography. Lakhani has none of that in his book.
When I asked him if he used AI to write any of this book and where his sources were he simply said, “To be honest, I used AI to help with grammar and editing, but the research, writing, and ideas are my own…I forgot to attach the sources when I sent the manuscript…”
This piqued my curiosity and had all my red flags waving. I ran the first two chapters through Grammarly, it says that it is 75% written with AI and there are lots of grammatical errors.
I normally would not sit here and harp on one or two flaws through my entire review, but having cited your sources validates your arguments, gives your readers a way to verify your claims, and prevents plagiarism. He was kind enough to send me his sources.
Upon further investigation, I found that all of his sources were other books and at no point did he list the exact page number of each fact he wrote about.
When I am given a book to review, I like to think that the author put a lot of “blood, sweat and tears” into their work. I can feel his passion with his ideas, but no one comes into the scene with this much knowledge on hand. He has to have gotten it from somewhere or someone. Writing it as though it is your own findings is plagiarism.
To add to that, every line or so ended with a period, as if it is a full and complete sentence rather than a question, clause, or incomplete thought all together.
If you are looking for a quick read this book is perfect. But please take it all with a grain of salt unless you are up to doing your own fact checking.
Because I was unable to make it through the book, the fact that AI was used to write most of it and incorrect or no sources cited in the book itself I am giving “America before Americans,” by Manav Lakhani one out of five stars.
★☆☆☆☆
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