The first settlement of the Americas is one of those research questions in which convictions have sometimes seemed as important as data. There has recently been encouragement both for True Believers, in the very early sequence of dates reported by the French from a Brazilian rock-shelter, and for True Sceptics, in the revised and more recent dates now given to some of the older finds from North America after further study by AMS carbon dating. Here, a review of a major new book is the opportunity to review the issues.