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Article: The Last Days Of Tenochtitlan
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 27, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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CONQUEST
Montezuma, Cortes, and the
Fall of Old Mexico
By Hugh Thomas
Simon & Schuster. 812 pp. $30
GENERAL IGNORANCE about Mexican history and culture pervaded the
NAFTA debate. Americans yawned over the recent revolt in Chiapas,
revealing once again an amazing apathy (also familiar to Canadians)
about our neighbors. Hugh Thomas, who has written so well on the
Spanish Civil War, has turned to the formative experience of Mexico,
the brutal conquest of the Aztec empire and its transformation into
New Spain. This huge book tells the well-known tale in excruciating
detail. Columbus stumbles into the New World, beginning a story in
which Spanish conquistadors pillage places like ...