Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
AuthorCamilla Townsend
LanguageEnglish
PublisherOxford University Press

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs is a 2019 book by American historian Camilla Townsend. The book utilizes indigenous, as opposed to European, sources to tell the history of Aztec civilization. The book won the 2020 Cundill Prize.

Writing and composition

Townsend was inspired to write the book while working on another work about histories written in Nahuatl.[1] In writing the book, Townsend aimed to convey that Aztec life, though changed, continued after Spanish conquest.[2]

Reception

Critical reception

David Stuart, in a review published by the 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 journal The Latin Americanist, praised the book as "extraordinary" and emphasized its accessibility to a broad audience.[4]

John Elliott reviewed Fifth Sun and the book The Aztecs by Frances Berdan in The 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 like León-Portilla and Soustell".[5]

Honors

The book won the 2020 Cundill Prize.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Camilla Townsend on winning the Cundill History Prize". 9 August 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  2. ↑ Tenorio, Rich (6 May 2020). "Fifth Sun is the history of the Aztecs as seen through their own eyes". Mexico News Daily. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  3. 1 2 Stuart, David (20 December 2019). "'Fifth Sun' Review: The Aztec Achievement". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  4. ↑ Wooley, Christopher (2020). "Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend (review)". The Latin Americanist. 64 (3): 363–364. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 Elliott, J. H. (2 December 2021). "Mastering the Glyphs". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  6. ↑ Saka, Rasheeda (3 December 2020). "Camilla Townsend is the 2020 winner of the Cundill History Prize". Literary Hub. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
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