For generations, historians have gleaned their understanding of the conquest of Mexico from Spanish accounts—whether from the conquistadors, who stressed Aztec human sacrifice, or Catholic missionaries, who were sometimes more sympathetic to the indigenous Nahua people. If you'd asked why the approach was so one-sided, the scholars would have said: Because nothing else is available. 

That's simply not true. The people Americans call Aztecs, who called themselves Mexica, had a strong tradition of historical annals that didn't stop with the conquest. For years afterward, the descendants of Nahua nobles, both Mexica and others, continued to write Nahuatl-language chronicles.

Happily, the long neglect of those documents has now ended. Historian Camilla Townsend continues her groundbreaking work in the field in the marvelous Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, a dramatic and accessible narrative that tells the story as the Nahuas saw it.

Yes, the Mexica sacrificed humans and were unpopular enough that some of the regions they had conquered allied with the Spanish. But they were also pragmatic, funny, clever, artistic and enmeshed in a civilization as sophisticated as Spain, if not as technologically advanced. Fifth Sun helps explode denigrating myths: Moctezuma was not a coward, just a realist. He did not think Hernán Cortés was a "god." The translator known to posterity as Malinche (really Malintzin) was not a "traitor."

Townsend, a first-rate writer, explores each era through the lives of real Nahuas who lived through or wrote about it. Among them are a captive daughter of Moctezuma, who bore one of Cortés' many illegitimate children; a local ruler who learned to work in a Spanish-governed world and sponsored an important chronicle; and an indigenous Catholic priest, proud of both his ancestry and his Christian faith. 

The Mexica were smart and effective, but they couldn't overcome Spanish horses, steel and guns. Even so, they didn't give up. As is often true after a conquest, the defeated generation's children rebelled a few decades later, and the grandchildren pushed to preserve their history. Fifth Sun continues that crucial task. 

For generations, historians have gleaned their understanding of the conquest of Mexico from Spanish accounts—whether from the conquistadors, who stressed Aztec human sacrifice, or Catholic missionaries, who were sometimes more sympathetic to the indigenous Nahua people. If you'd asked why the approach was so one-sided, the scholars would have said: Because nothing else is available. 

That's simply not true. The people Americans call Aztecs, who called themselves Mexica, had a strong tradition of historical annals that didn't stop with the conquest. For years afterward, the descendants of Nahua nobles, both Mexica and others, continued to write Nahuatl-language chronicles.

Happily, the long neglect of those documents has now ended. Historian Camilla Townsend continues her groundbreaking work in the field in the marvelous Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, a dramatic and accessible narrative that tells the story as the Nahuas saw it.

Yes, the Mexica sacrificed humans and were unpopular enough that some of the regions they had conquered allied with the Spanish. But they were also pragmatic, funny, clever, artistic and enmeshed in a civilization as sophisticated as Spain, if not as technologically advanced. Fifth Sun helps explode denigrating myths: Moctezuma was not a coward, just a realist. He did not think Hernán Cortés was a "god." The translator known to posterity as Malinche (really Malintzin) was not a "traitor."

Townsend, a first-rate writer, explores each era through the lives of real Nahuas who lived through or wrote about it. Among them are a captive daughter of Moctezuma, who bore one of Cortés' many illegitimate children; a local ruler who learned to work in a Spanish-governed world and sponsored an important chronicle; and an indigenous Catholic priest, proud of both his ancestry and his Christian faith. 

The Mexica were smart and effective, but they couldn't overcome Spanish horses, steel and guns. Even so, they didn't give up. As is often true after a conquest, the defeated generation's children rebelled a few decades later, and the grandchildren pushed to preserve their history. Fifth Sun continues that crucial task. 

Camilla Townsend's excellent historical text covers the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs with important additional context. Anecdotes from translated works and introductions to crucial Indigenous characters result in a gripping, novelistic narrative that explains the situation before, during, and after the arrival of the conquistadors.

The book makes excellent use of its sources. Written in the Nahuatl language, they detail the competition and alliances between various Aztec city-states. Compelling characters lead to strong narratives about Mexica life before 1519, beginning with the princess Chimalxochitl, who, after her father declared himself an independent king and was defeated by other Aztecs in 1299, ordered her own men to sacrifice her rather than let her captors shame her. Itzcoatl, meanwhile, allowed his brother's son to rule and served him loyally until his death, avoiding a power struggle and still coming to power later in life, while Malintzin served as a translator and guide to the conqueror Hernan Cortes, helping him defeat city-states that were rivals of her people.

Because of these and other historical figures, Fifth Sun reads as a compelling drama as it discusses the Spanish invasion and the mysterious illnesses that wiped out many among the Indigenous population. The book also places the Spanish conquest in important context, explaining how it exploited rifts between Aztec peoples and how different groups met different fates. The text shows how the surviving Mexica community dealt with forced religious conversion, internal Spanish politics, and more waves of disease in the aftermath of the conquest.

After centuries of the end of the Aztec empire being related through a Spanish lens, Fifth Sun and its use of Mexica firsthand accounts and perspectives is a needed corrective. It helps fill in a story that's been one-sided for far too long.

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1519 to begin the devastating and long process of conquest over the Aztec populations, there was a thriving world already in existence that was eventually suppressed by the invaders. With the goal of examining the Aztec's history before and after Spanish influence, Townsend (history, Rutgers Univ.) investigates five complex aspects of the time: Aztec politics, moral philosophy, the initial reactions of Aztecs to the Spanish explorers, the lives of immediate survivors after various plagues, as well as surviving generations who struggled against economic and prejudicial challenges. Townsend successfully meets his goal by providing vivid narratives of different historical figures within this period in Aztec history. These accounts are based in reliable, academic research and told in a way that demonstrates empathy while calling attention to prevailing tendencies in historical interpretation by the greater scholarly community.

VERDICT Recommended for college students and academics with an interest in history, Latin American history, Aztec history, and the Mexico's colonial past.—Monique Martinez, Univ. of North Georgia Lib., Dahlonega