The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction by David Carrasco is a succinct but comprehensive history of the, in many ways infamous, ancient Latin American civilization known as the Aztecs. His book goes through an overview of the foundation and creation of the Aztec culture and way of life, their expansion, their taboo rituals of sacrifice and reputation as a violent and warlike group, and eventually the fall of the civilization as a whole. The book as a whole speaks volumes in its simplicity; it gives readers an excellent sense of what this strange and once very powerful culture once was in, as the title suggests, a very short amount of pages.
The book begins with the description of the massive and intimidating wonder that was the city of Tenochtitlan. …show more content…
It tells the story of the crucial developing point of the Aztec culture where their “Azteca” ancestors arrived in the Basin of Mexico in the early 14th century and at that spot they saw an eagle land, and this said to them that this is the direction they needed to be going and made a shrine to their god, Huitzilopochtli. From there, the novel continues on to discuss the creation of the various cities and the complexities of the creation of this new culture from a new “Triple Alliance” of the Tezcoco, Tenochtitlan-Tlateloco, and Tlacopan who would eventually go on to become the “Mexica” …show more content…
This work does an exceptional job of explaining the entire history, customs, and culture of the Aztec people without reading like a fact book. It presents itself as a very readable narrative, a story of a people who built a civilization up to a climax of extraordinary greatness, and then witnessed a massive and unexpected fall from grace. This work is easily readable for an audience high school level or above and, while it does present a large amount of names and terms, it does not ever become overwhelming or dull to read. An understanding of the Aztec civilization is crucial to understanding the history of Latin America as a whole and this book is of great historical importance due to the fact that it can be used by anyone as a concise but thoroughly detailed history of an exceptional and controversial civilization whose existence still hangs on even
The book begins with the description of the massive and intimidating wonder that was the city of Tenochtitlan. …show more content…
It tells the story of the crucial developing point of the Aztec culture where their “Azteca” ancestors arrived in the Basin of Mexico in the early 14th century and at that spot they saw an eagle land, and this said to them that this is the direction they needed to be going and made a shrine to their god, Huitzilopochtli. From there, the novel continues on to discuss the creation of the various cities and the complexities of the creation of this new culture from a new “Triple Alliance” of the Tezcoco, Tenochtitlan-Tlateloco, and Tlacopan who would eventually go on to become the “Mexica” …show more content…
This work does an exceptional job of explaining the entire history, customs, and culture of the Aztec people without reading like a fact book. It presents itself as a very readable narrative, a story of a people who built a civilization up to a climax of extraordinary greatness, and then witnessed a massive and unexpected fall from grace. This work is easily readable for an audience high school level or above and, while it does present a large amount of names and terms, it does not ever become overwhelming or dull to read. An understanding of the Aztec civilization is crucial to understanding the history of Latin America as a whole and this book is of great historical importance due to the fact that it can be used by anyone as a concise but thoroughly detailed history of an exceptional and controversial civilization whose existence still hangs on even