The Wonder of the Spanish Conquests Brought to Life!

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	• History of the Conquest of Mexico (Modern Library Classics) William H. Prescott Modern Library, 2001 - 1056 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Wonder of the Spanish Conquests Brought to Life!

Prescott was one of the first historians to credit the Native Americans with the founding of the ancient American civilizations; rather than some lost white race or wandering tribe of Hebrews.

Maya explorer John Lloyd Stephens was another famous person from the 1840s who realized that ancient American civilization arose independently in the New World. When it is considered that almost everyone else was pointing to lost white races as the originators of these civilizations, the vision of these two men is remarkable.

Nevertheless, Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" and "Conquest of Peru" (bound together in the "Modern Library Giant" edition) are stunning as historical narratives based on original sources. What an achievement by a man who was half blind!

I would rank these two volumes as the two most captivating books I ever read. The audacity and bravery (and cruelty) of the Spanish leaves your mouth agape.

Read these two histories and relive the wonder of the Conquests of Mexico and Peru. Ten stars!

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history of the conquest of mexico

Im still working trhough it
it is said to be an exellent source of info for the post conquest history of mexico, and it may be so, but the ancient english makes for heavy reading...

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One of the great histories written... ever

Wow. I studied History and Literature at Harvard... and they never introduced me to this book! Shame on Harvard. Prescott is a true fusion of history and literature. Built on deep reading and comprehensive research of original sources and shot through with critical insights blended with fairness, Prescott's work is so different from much modern history (which is the manipulation of facts to satisfy politcal agendas).
Gosh, I know Prescott is disavowed/not read because of the discrimination against dead white males. But he's just flat-out better than the historian practitioners of today.

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A great historical book

Prescott's book is a must to read for everyone interested in the history of Mexico. The account of the conquest is very detailed,obviously product of an extensive research and yet extremely readable. Among the admirable qualities of Prescott as a historical narrator is his attempt at staying objective. He uses previous accounts of the events in question but always keeps in mind that history is written by the victors. He tries to side neither with the conquerors nor with the Aztec, givig credit to the latter for their valor and yet underlining the inevitability of their downfall.
Prescott's book is a great history, yet reads as easy as fiction. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in Mexico!

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reviews: page 1, 2

"It is a magnificent epic," said William H. Prescott after the publication of History of the Conquest of Mexico in 1843. Since then, his sweeping account of Cortés's subjugation of the Aztec people has endured as a landmark work of scholarship and dramatic storytelling. This pioneering study presents a compelling view of the clash of civilizations that reverberates in Latin America to this day.

"Regarded simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the Conquest of Mexico is Prescott's masterpiece," judged his biographer Harry Thurston Peck. "More than that, it is one of the most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary art applied to historical narration. . . . Here, as nowhere else, has Prescott succeeded in delineating character. All the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in life. Cortés and his lieutenants are persons whom we actually come to know in the pages of Pres-cott. . . . Over against these brilliant figures stands the melancholy form of Montezuma, around whom, even from the first, one feels gathering the darkness of his coming fate. He reminds one of some hero of Greek tragedy, doomed to destruction and intensely conscious of it, yet striving in vain against the decree of an inexorable destiny. . . . [Prescott] transmuted the acquisitions of laborious research into an enduring monument of pure literature."

From the eBook edition.

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