Conquistadors

Rating:
Summary: More than just about Cortes & Pizarro
Review: As you read this book, you can imagine it being Michael Wood's speaking script for his TV program.

As well as the stories you would expect about Cortes & Pizarro, I was pleasantly surprised to read of 2 explorers I'd never heard of - Orellana & de Vaca - which made this different to many other books of the same theme.

Rating:
Summary: More than just about Cortes & Pizarro
Review: As you read this book, you can imagine it being Michael Wood's speaking script for his TV program.

As well as the stories you would expect about Cortes & Pizarro, I was pleasantly surprised to read of 2 explorers I'd never heard of - Orellana & de Vaca - which made this different to many other books of the same theme.

Rating:
Summary: Stolen Continent
Review: From the moment I started this book I could not put it down until I got to the last page, pausing for thought and burning with anxiety at what had occurred.

There are about five distinctive sections. About two chapters on the Aztecs and the fall of Tenochtitlan. Similarly about the Incas and the end of their rebellion. Then a chapter on the discovery of the Amazon. Another on Spanish explorer Cabeza De Vaca and finally on how the Spanish conquest lead to a human rights debate.

The paintings and illustrations are in colour. The writing is warm, gripping and balanced - A BBC style expose of what was going on (by an underrated BBC TV program) with its brillian author presenter.

If you don't have a clue about how S. America was stolen, this book takes you to the thick of it. To the vanquishing of two entire civilisations and an incomparable destruction by "civilised" Spaniards crazy about gold and converts to Christianity as a pretext for enslaving and abusing their conquered victims.

He sticks to the most important details, the massacres, what made the conquistadors tick?, the heroism, bravery and about confronting "The Other" - a titanic clash of cultures. What indeed could have happened if the Chinese got there first as Woods ruefully inquires?

This book I hope will show Latin Americans in particular the importance of replacing something lost though it can never be regained. Perhaps Mexico city should be given back its original name.

I'd love to have seen a better illustration or two of Tenochtitlan but it is now all gone anyway.

This book is a celebration of those lost golden civilisations with a penchant for human sacrifice.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I fully expected this to be another dry, somnolent history book. Was I ever wrong! Michael Wood has written a conversational account of some of the most gripping yet unreported events in this hemisphere. Trust me on this: you will love his style and his expertise. Wood puts you in the mind of Cortes, Pizarro, and de Vaca and passionately paints the history created by these men. This book will make you want to walk in their footsteps.

Rating:
Summary: This should be called : european bad - ethnic good.
Review: I give this 2 stars because Michael Wood states his opinion way too much. When I read history I want to read facts and make my own judgment about who was good and who was evil in history. In this book Wood constantly remindes us how bad europeans are and how good the Inacas and Aztecs must have been. This book is more about ethnic worshipping than about history. It still has some facts so that is why it gets 2 stars, otherwise it would be even worst. The author seems to relish every moment a european got killed, but bemoans every inca lose. Not to mention he tries to degrade every achievement the spanish accomplish.

If you are a ethic worshipper with low self-esteem that has a reverse persecution problem, then this is for you.

On the other hand if you are interested in history and making your own opinion about history, and if you have pride in being european then DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF TRASH.

SO STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the book Weird History about the Aztecs
Review: I say this as in the book Weird History it is hardly mentioned at all that the Aztecs were cannibals. Here author Michael Wood frequently deals well with the fact that the indians under Montezuma indeed munched on human flesh regularly. Therefore, he does not make the Aztecs, or their society, desirable in any way. But even so he's far, far too kind all the same as well as sympathetic about these human eaters of human flesh as a judgement of a completely, absolutely negative one is appropriate for the Aztec society. Make no mistake people. The Aztecs were one of the world's three worst societies ever. Right alongside Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany.On another point:The bit about talking about how what if the Chinese had discovered the Americas instead is worthless, speculative nonsense and obvious racial butt kissing by the author. Shame on him. You're a white man, Wood, favor your own kind and stop being a dumb PC traitor.

Rating:
Summary: Living History
Review: Michael Wood on screen and in print has that rare ability to transfer his enthusiasm for his subject to his audience. Here he takes us through the Spanish Conquest of 16th Century Central and South America by journeying to the places where the events occured. Many of them quite off the beaten track and pretty much as they were. In Mexico City he retraces Cortez's seizure of the city with a street by street account through the modern city.

He makes one crucial point that many seem to miss. Cortez and Pizarro did not conquer these nations with a few hundred men as legend would have us believe. They had tens of thousands of native allies who marched with them. These were the unhappy vassal states conquered by the Aztecs and Incas who basically wanted pay back. In a way he makes us aware of 2 conquests. Those by the Aztecs and Incas over their neighbors and the Spanish Conquest with the help of those neighbors.

The aftermath is also closely examined with the Church's paradoxical role in it. At first brutalizing the native populations and in later years trying to stop it. At first attempting to wipe out all traces of the native cultures and later feverishly trying to preserve it. It is not as simple a tale as some believe and Wood clearly takes the reader through it in this lavishly illustrated volume. At present the TV series that this book was meant to compliment has yet to appear on DVD. Hopefully soon but for now Wood's book shows us how alive history can be and how some of its players are not quite what we think they are.

Rating:
Summary: Stolen Continent
Review: This exciting and well illustrated read traces the incredible expeditions of some of the most famous Spainish Conquistadors. Michael Woods travels along the tropical Amazon and to Everglades of Florida in search of the original route of the likes of Cortez and Pizarro. But this is not just an adventure story but also an accurate conveyance of history and the personalities of the time. He also manages to discuss the history on a thematic level - approaching issues such as human rights and colonialism. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the sense of wonder first experienced when viewed for the first time from European eyes.

5 stars - thoroughly worth purchasing for any history buff!