A New History of the Aztecs
FAIN: FZ-256395-17
Camilla Townsend
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8559)
The writing of a book-length narrative on Aztec history from before the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
This book is a sweeping new interpretive study of the Aztecs. The last major work on the subject is now almost thirty years old. In the intervening years, scholars have made great strides in our ability to read the Nahuatl (or Aztec language) histories written by the indigenous people themselves in the sixteenth century. We no longer need to depend on the comments made by the Spanish conquerors, or on silent archaeological remains; this book will allow readers to hear what the Native Americans themselves had to say on the subject of their own history and culture. It will focus on the period beginning about a century before the conquest and ending about a century after. Prior works have always ended or begun at the moment of conquest, as if there could be no comparison between the “before” and “after.” But the people who lived through the trauma knew that their lives went on, and they had a great deal to say about surviving and learning to live with conquest.