APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
Why is a British voice narrating the history of the Spanish conquest of Aztec Mexico? That’s just one of the questions this fascinating revisionist history leaves behind. The author believes every other historian got it wrong, and that after 499 years he has the real story. But it’s often hard to tell what he’s getting at or exactly where the differences lie. Steven Crossley is a focused and highly skilled narrator, commendable, in particular, for his fluid handling of Aztec nomenclature. You can listen for hours to this vivid re-creation of the world of the Aztecs, rendered in scrupulous detail. But here is one case where the parts outweigh the whole. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 11/13/2017
Restall (The Conquistadors), director of Latin-American studies at Penn State, makes an impressive and nuanced case for why radically reinterpreting the Nov. 8, 1519, encounter between Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés and Aztec emperor Montezuma leads to a totally different view of the following four centuries. “The Meeting,” as Restall dubs it, is the founding myth of Latin-American history, an event that inhabits the liminal space between history and legend. What is known about the meeting has been gleaned almost entirely from one source: 16th-century foot-soldier Bernal Díaz’s True History of New Spain, which Restall argues is neither true nor strictly historical. Using his knowledge of the Nahuatl language to revisit forgotten texts and parse eyewitness accounts of the Aztecs’ “surrender,” Restall strips away layers of accumulated historical sediment to reveal a meeting that looks very different from the version found in history textbooks and memorialized in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. According to Restall, the meeting wasn’t a turning point but rather merely one moment in the Spanish-Aztec War, a brutal two-year struggle historically whitewashed in favor of an account that justifies and reinforces the European presence in the Americas and became the foundation for a false history of indigenous weakness and European superiority. Blending erudition with enthusiasm, Restall has achieved a rare kind of work—serious scholarship that is impossible to put down. Illus. (Jan.)
Louis S. Warren
In a deeply learned history that reads like a detective story, Restall reveals the Gordian knot of myth and fiction that have long hidden the real history of the encounter between Montezuma and Cortes. The history of the Americas will never be the same.”
Charles Mann
A new, startlingly persuasive picture of what actually happened during the Spanish Conquest, based on a radical question: What if the tough, canny leaders of these native military empires didn’t suddenly fold up like wet cardboard at the arrival of a couple of hundred bearded oddities from some faraway place?
BookPage
Brilliant deep dive into the history and scholarship. . . . Through diligent research, Restall presents readers with a fascinating view of Montezuma, mounting a convincing argument that Cortes’ self-serving accounts and the traditional narrative are almost surely false.
Wall Street Journal
Restall has a well-earned reputation as a mythbuster in the history of the New World. . . . A lively, original, and readable book aimed at a wider audience. . . . A remarkable achievement.
New Yorker
Restall skillfully describes a subtler story of relationships both loving and coercive. . . . Bold.
Kirkus Reviews
2017-10-02
A methodical deconstruction of the myths surrounding Hernando Cortés' "Mexican conquest" and the surrender of Montezuma.Restall's (Latin American History/Pennsylvania State Univ.; The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan, 2013, etc.) main point is that the more you shift the point of view, the more is revealed. The traditional story fits the bill for all Western universal narratives in which civilizations are victorious over barbarism, thereby justifying invasion. The same goes for the usual claims that the natives were cannibals and sodomists, all used to make the victors look good. The story of Cortés landing in Mexico, being treated as a god, and accepting Montezuma's "surrender" to the great king of Spain is fiction. The author looks at the small force Cortés brought from Cuba to explore the coastline and sees an outnumbered group, fighting among themselves and overstepping their orders. He also reminds us of the "black legend" of the conquistadors as vicious, bloodthirsty murderers and slavers. The myth of Cortés is based almost entirely on his second letter (the first is lost) to the Spanish king in which his claims are nothing but fabrications. At the time of writing, he and his men were guests of Montezuma and nowhere near subduing this highly civilized people. It is the case of the victor writing the history, and Cortés' letter was the basis for it. Even more interesting is Restall's view of emperor Montezuma, whom history has called a coward. The author makes an excellent case for a strong leader of a civilization of tens of thousands in a city with gardens, palaces, and even a zoo at least a century before any European court. There was no need for him to fear the few hundred Spanish, and he was most likely toying with them, unaware of the cruel treachery that would result. Throughout, Restall's assertions are well-supported and difficult to refute, and the timeline that opens the book is particularly helpful.An engaging revisionist exploration of "one of human history's great lies."
