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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.02
EAN: 9780553805383
ISBN: 055380538X
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Studio: Bantam

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In an astonishing work of scholarship that reads like an adventure thriller, historian Buddy Levy records the last days of the Aztec empire and the two men at the center of an epic clash of cultures.

“I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold.” —Hernán Cortés

It was a moment unique in human history, the face-to-face meeting between two men from civilizations a world apart. Only one would survive the encounter. In 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived on the shores of Mexico with a roughshod crew of adventurers and the intent to expand the Spanish empire. Along the way, this brash and roguish conquistador schemed to convert the native inhabitants to Catholicism and carry off a fortune in gold. That he saw nothing paradoxical in his intentions is one of the most remarkable—and tragic—aspects of this unforgettable story of conquest.

In Tenochtitlán, the famed City of Dreams, Cortés met his Aztec counterpart, Montezuma: king, divinity, ruler of fifteen million people, and commander of the most powerful military machine in the Americas. Yet in less than two years, Cortés defeated the entire Aztec nation in one of the most astonishing military campaigns ever waged. Sometimes outnumbered in battle thousands-to-one, Cortés repeatedly beat seemingly impossible odds. Buddy Levy meticulously researches the mix of cunning, courage, brutality, superstition, and finally disease that enabled Cortés and his men to survive.

Conquistador is the story of a lost kingdom—a complex and sophisticated civilization where floating gardens, immense wealth, and reverence for art stood side by side with bloodstained temples and gruesome rites of human sacrifice. It’s the story of Montezuma—proud, spiritual, enigmatic, and doomed to misunderstand the stranger he thought a god. Epic in scope, as entertaining as it is enlightening, Conquistador is history at its most riveting.




Rating: - I learned a lot, but something of a cultural double standard
This book covers the Cortes expedition, from the landing along the coast through the destruction of the Aztec capital, with a short wrap up of the featured players. I was glad that the author resisted the temptation to go on and on. He found his ending point and took it. For those wanting more, there is extra information about the important characters and chronologies in several appendices at the end.

Levy writes in a readable style that is befitting the book's popular audience. ... Read More

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Rating: - A very well written work
This is an extremely well written account of the conquest of the Aztec empire by Cortes and his allies. The author does a very good job of conveying the complete "otherness" of the Aztec beliefs and customs and the Spaniards reaction to them. In many ways it was a clash of two barbaric cultures----both fated to not understand one another. The culture of the Americas developed in isolation for thousands of years and in many ways it appears to us like a culture from a science fiction novel. I cannot ... Read More

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Rating: - Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs
Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs by Buddy Levy. 448 pages. 2008.

The Conquest of Mexico was not a single event, it was not the result of disease, treachery, technology, or evil it was a long two year slog of battles won and battles lost. Too often the events surrounding the Conquest are simplified to issues of technology or disease and to a demonizing of the Spaniards. The reality is of course more nuanced and the simplification denigrates all ... Read More

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Rating: - Conquistador
One of the most enlightening and thorough retelling of the clash of cultures and civilizations when a handful of Spaniards conquered a thriving enlightened people. The result: creation of a completely new race in Mexico and eventually elsewhere in Latin America. The first meeting between Hernan Cortes and Moctezuma was so dramatic it won't be repeated until an eathling and an alien from space meet face to face. Sad that many Americans have no knowledge of the feas accomplished by Cortes and his conquistadores.

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Rating: - An Excellent Read
"Men of God and men of war have strange affinities" Levy quotes Cormac McCarthy at the outset of this fascinating narrative of Hernàn Cortés and Montezuma. The quote could hardly be more appropriate, since both men were undoubtedly, each in their own way, exactly that: men of war and men of God. It makes for a heady mix: Cortés a pious Spaniard who unhesitatingly committed mass murder, Montezuma the absolute ruler of an empire both capable of civil achievements and horrendous human sacrifice. The author's achievement ... Read More

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