 | |
| Author | Camilla Townsend |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication date | 2019 |
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs is a 2019 book by American historianCamilla Townsend. The book utilizes indigenous, as opposed to European, sources to tell the history ofAztec civilization. The book won the 2020Cundill History Prize.
Townsend was inspired to write the book while working on another work about histories written inNahuatl.[1] In writing the book, Townsend aimed to convey that Aztec life, though changed, continued afterSpanish conquest.[2]
David Stuart, in a review published byThe Wall Street Journal, praised the book as a "vivid account of what Aztec writers and chroniclers had to say about their own history".[3] Stuart further praised the book as "bridging of the cultures of Aztec literary history both before and after the coming of the Spanish" rather than operating as a more straightforward history.[3] Christopher Wooley, in a review published by the journalThe Latin Americanist, praised the book as "extraordinary" and emphasized its accessibility to a broad audience.[4]
J. H. Elliott reviewedFifth Sun and the bookThe Aztecs byFrances F. Berdan inThe New York Review of Books.[5] Elliott praised both writers for "style and verve" but also faulted them for not "[being] more generous in their acknowledgment of the pioneering work of predecessors likeLeón-Portilla and Soustell".[5]
The book won the 2020Cundill History Prize.[6]