Rating: 5 out of 5
I tend to like the books which are accessible and yet take us into mostly unexplored worlds. This one was definitely of that kind — of the names I knew before that of Hernan Cortes stands out, and even he was only an intruder into this story. Montezuma is the other name that some people have heard, but Mr Tsouras uses not this but a different spelling option, trying to get rid of the bias we have so often pushed onto our understanding of the Mexican region.
This brings me to one of my most appreciated aspects of this book — the author tries time and time again to refer to things and to describe things, insofar as it is possible, within the framework that the people who lived there could have understood. Even if this sense of revisionism has come about quite late, I think it is welcome, and especially so in the attempt to understand civilizations so far apart from what we now take for granted.
The other good methodologies I appreciated were the author’s tries to include theories which could sound crazy, but for the time and place might be possible. The written history that this region has given us leaves far more to be guessed than known, and therefore theories which expound on these are welcome.
Overall, this is a perfect introduction into a history of the region which leaves one not only wanting more but also at a relatively good position to look for more from.
