Fifth Sun
by Camilla Townsend · first published 2019
50% recommend33% neutral17% critical
In November 1519, Hernando Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story--and the story of what happened afterwards--has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated,
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…podcast! The Aztecs (or Mexica) also have a written history from before the Europeans came. See great summaries in the two books below: A Rain of Darts: The Mexica Aztecs by Burr Cartwright Brundage Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend
on “What Day of the Dead tells us about the Aztec philosophy of happiness” ↗Actually better is the book "The Fifth Sun: A new history of the Aztecs" written in Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and translated by Camille Townsend. It is an account of how the Aztecs viewed conquest, which they didn't see as a conquest initially.…
on “3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire” ↗Camilla Townsend's "Fifth Sun" was a really interesting read in that it brought together a lot of sources of the conquest to tell a more detailed story than I had probably heard before. When the Spanish showed up, the Aztec's enemies…
on “Why the Bronze Age Collapsed” ↗I have this book in my to read stack and another American history in there is “Fifth Sun” by Camilla Townsend. It is a history of the Aztecs, referenced from Aztec historians. It sounds like a wonderful book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44244939-fifth-sun
on “The Lakota: A Human Story” ↗…with a guy, with rebus device to suggest his name, surrounded by rain, hoping to convey such a sentence. But at that point you're just guessing. It changes things a lot. I was reading the blurb on that Fifth Sun book and they were getting quite romantic suggesting a narrative of the true forgotten story of the Aztec in their own words the Spanish conquerors didn't want you to know! That's so dishonest to a naive…
on “What Day of the Dead tells us about the Aztec philosophy of happiness” ↗I'm reading a book about the Aztecs now (Fifth Sun). The meeting of the Spanish with the Mexica has to be the most epic event in human history. Tragic what was lost. Kudos to the artist for this.
on “3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec empire” ↗