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Fifth Sun Camilla Townsend (Professor of History, Professor of History, Rutgers University)

Fifth Sun By Camilla Townsend (Professor of History, Professor of History, Rutgers University)

Summary

Fifth Sun offers a comprehensive history of the Aztecs, spanning the period before conquest to a century after the conquest, based on rarely-used Nahuatl-language sources written by the indigenous people.

Fifth Sun Summary

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend (Professor of History, Professor of History, Rutgers University)

In November 1519, Hernando Cortes walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story-and the story of what happened afterwards-has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars. For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes. The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the Europeans arrived and did not simply capitulate to Spanish culture and colonization. Instead, they realigned their political allegiances, accommodated new obligations, adopted new technologies, and endured. This engaging revisionist history of the Aztecs, told through their own words, explores the experience of a once-powerful people facing the trauma of conquest and finding ways to survive, offering an empathetic interpretation for experts and non-specialists alike.

Fifth Sun Reviews

A revolutionary history. * Ben Ehrenreich, The Guardian *
This is the best book on the Aztecs yet written, full stop ... The value of Fifth Sun lies in how it rescues Aztecs and Nahuas from centuries of colonialist caricature and renders them human again - fully human, with flaws, people capable of brutal violence but also of deep love. * History Today *
This wonderfully fresh, readable new work invites you to reconsider everything you think you knew about them. * Jonathan Gordon, All About History *
Shows the Mexica empire in a fresh, thrilling new light. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, Aspects of History *
Spanning the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, this book recreates key moments in the Mexica past as the Mexica themselves experienced and remembered them. We meet real men and women whose actions changed the course of history. We see time as the Mexica did, a sequence of years extending unbroken from mythic origins to intrepid migration to imperial splendor to the challenges of living with the Spanish colonial presence. Never before has the Aztecs' own epic story been so vividly and engagingly recounted for readers of English. * Louise M. Burkhart, author of Aztecs on Stage: Religious Theater in Colonial Mexico *
From the initial migration southward, to the second generation after the conquest, Fifth Sun is a masterful account of the history of the Aztecs in their own words. A whole world arises from the pages: vivid, complex, and much closer to us than expected. Townsend's understanding of the indigenous annals is unmatched, and her book reads like a novel. You simply cannot put it down. * Caterina Pizzigoni, author of The Life Within: Local Indigenous Society in Mexico's Toluca Valley, 1650-1800 *
Never before has the political history of the Aztecs, who knew themselves as the Mexica, been told with such sweeping elan. Townsend brings keen insight into the motivations of the players, be they seasoned warriors, shackled slaves, or calculating concubines. Her gripping narrative, underscoring Aztec tenacity and endurance before and beyond the Spanish conquest, is sure to captivate readers. * Barbara Mundy, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City *
Camilla Townsend has an unusually profound understanding of Nahua culture, before and during the colonial period. She also has a rare set of research, linguistic, and writing skills. That combination of expertise and talent make her uniquely positioned to offer us a new book on the Aztecs, one that manages to be-despite the plethora of existing studies-both original and mandatory reading. This is a page-turner that is nonetheless packed with new insights and interpretations. * Matthew Restall, author of When Montezuma Met Cortes: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History *

About Camilla Townsend (Professor of History, Professor of History, Rutgers University)

Camilla Townsend is Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of numerous books, including Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, and The Annals of Native America: How the Nahuas of Colonial Mexico Kept Their History Alive (OUP, 2016), which won multiple prizes, among them the Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Mexica Royal Family Tree Introduction Chapter 1: Genghis Khan on Foot Chapter 2: People of the Valley Chapter 3: The City on the Lake Chapter 4: Strangers to Us People Here Chapter 5: A War to End All Wars Chapter 6: Early Days Chapter 7: Crisis: The Indians Talk Back Chapter 8: The Grandchildren Epilogue Notes Annotated Bibliography Index

Additional information

CIN0190673060VG
9780190673062
0190673060
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend (Professor of History, Professor of History, Rutgers University)
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Oxford University Press Inc
20200109
320
Winner of Winner of the Cundill History Prize Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2019. null null null null null null null null null
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

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