Tree of Rivers covers the human history of the Amazon, starting with the first Europeans and going forward–with an exception ¾ of the way through to talk about the first humans. With five hundred years to cover, it’d be hard to argue that one book could be comprehensive, but Hemming makes a valiant attempt, and does a good job of curtailing himself to only the history of the Amazon, even if it left me confused about some of the politics in the rest of Brazil.