Books by Camilla Townsend
“The interesting thing about Malintzin’s life, and what Townsend’s book is about, is how this woman of – from a political point of view – very obscure origins, from a powerless, subordinate social position becomes one of the most important players in what we have come to call the Conquest of Mexico.” Read more...
The best books on Mexican history
Timo Schaefer, Historian
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
by Camilla Townsend
***Winner of the 2020 Cundill History Prize***
“It’s a ground-breaking book in many ways. Camilla Townsend has been doing work on this for a while at what you might call a high scholarly level, and this is an attempt to take that learning to a slightly wider audience…She has access to these documents called xiuhpohualli, which she translates as ‘yearly accounts’, but they are the Nahuatl people’s annals and, using these, she concentrates on a period of roughly about a hundred years either side of Hernan Cortes’s arrival. She is very concerned not to portray the Mexica, the Aztecs, as these people who indulge in human sacrifice and all the other things we know from Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. But it does go on and the human sacrifice actually increases with time.” Read more...
The Best History Books of 2020
Paul Lay, Historian
Interviews where books by Camilla Townsend were recommended
The Best History Books of 2020, recommended by Paul Lay
From the great Latin poet Ovid to the poet of the 17th century English republic, John Milton. From the Jews in Reformation Europe to the world of the Aztecs across the centuries. From the life of Ludwig van Beethoven to the importance of language in all its varieties to studying history. Paul Lay, editor of History Today, recommends his favourite history books of 2020.
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1
Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico
by Camilla Townsend -
2
Los Conspiradores
by Jorge Ibarüengoitia -
3
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
by Friedrich Katz -
4
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story
by Ruth Behar -
5
The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade
by Benjamin Smith
The best books on Mexican history, recommended by Timo Schaefer
The best books on Mexican history, recommended by Timo Schaefer
In Mexican history, power developed in marginal locations away from the center has often played a major role in critical historical events, says award-winning historian Timo Schaefer. He recommends some of the best books on Mexican history, from a biography of the extraordinary Malintzin (c1500-1529) to a myth-busting history of the drug trade.
