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Title: The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Aztec

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-13-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

From the moment Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes first found and confronted them, the Aztecs have fascinated the world, and they continue to hold a unique place both culturally and in pop culture. Nearly 500 years after the Spanish conquered their mighty empire, the Aztecs are often remembered for their major capital, Tenochtitlan, as well as for being fierce conquerors of the Valley of Mexico who often engaged in human sacrifice rituals.

Ironically, and unlike the Mayans, the Aztecs are not widely viewed or remembered with nuance, in part because their own leader burned extant Aztec writings and rewrote a mythologized history explaining his empire's dominance less than a century before the Spanish arrived. Naturally, Cortes and other Spaniards depicted the Aztecs as savages greatly in need of conversion to Catholicism. While the Mayans are remembered for their astronomy, numeral system, and calendar, the Aztecs have primarily been remembered in a far narrower way, despite continuing to be a source of pride to Mexicans through the centuries.

As a result, even though the Aztecs continue to interest people across the world centuries after their demise, it has fallen on archaeologists and historians to try to determine the actual history, culture, and lives of the Aztecs from the beginning to the end, relying on excavations, primary accounts, and more. The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Aztecs looks at this whole story in an attempt to portray the Aztecs as they actually were.

Members Reviews:

interesting but a few flaws

This book focuses on a lot of the sensational aspects of Mexica culture. It is a good introduction and does list a lot of the standardly known facts--indications of cannibalism, the scope of the empire, the complexity of the architecture and agricultural practices. Still it lingers of the human sacrifice a bit much and repeats things that recent scholarship has made controversial. For example the claim that Aztecs claimed the king Montezuma II thought that Cortes was the plumed serpent God. Recent scholarship indicates that could have been a creole legend and not of native Mexica origin. Still it is a decent introduction.

I want my money back.

I recommend you purchase any other book if you want to learn about the Aztec culture. The writing shows the author has no real concept of the culture's achievements and actually surpasses ignorance to venture into insult.

Good Read

I like that the author pointed out not only the most popular Aztec beliefs but also other accounts that were not as well know.

Five Stars

Good

More like a cheat sheet than a text

received in timely manner. Very narrow in scope, not very helpful. More like a cheat sheet than a text.