Fifth Sun

Camilla Townsend is Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of numerous books, including Malintzin's Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, and The Annals of Native America: How the Nahuas of Colonial Mexico Kept Their History Alive (OUP, 2016), which won multiple prizes, among them The Albert J. Beveridge Award awarded by the American Historical Association.

• AcknowledgmentsMexica Royal Family TreeIntroduction Chapter 1: Genghis Khan on Foot Chapter 2: People of the Valley Chapter 3: The City on the Lake Chapter 4: Strangers to Us People Here Chapter 5: A War to End All Wars Chapter 6: Early Days Chapter 7: Crisis: The Indians Talk Back Chapter 8: The Grandchildren Epilogue NotesAnnotated Bibliography Index

It is admirable how Townsend exploits the details of microhistory based on Native accounts to answer bigger questions, reveal meanings behind particular events, and offer the reader macro-level conclusions ... through this book we actually experience the past rather than simply read about it. It is not only convincing; it is simply captivating. Townsend has the courage to resort to "poetic license", but even then we do not lose the sense of transparency as the endnotes provide a full disclosure, informing critical readers about exact sources, possible discrepancies, uncertainties about the facts, and the source of the historian's preferred interpretation. By combining deep reading of Native sources with reexperiencing the emotions of their actors and reliving their deeds and decisions, Townsend puts into practice an ideal of historical writing.