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A review by bunsonh
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo
4.0
This book was great. But I eventually stopped reading it because I couldn't take any more of del Castillo's rationalization of genocide. I kept picking it up, but then abandoning it, because it was just too painful to continue. Maybe someday...
EDIT: July 01, 2017 -
I finally finished this. I wonder why I bothered. Not that it wasn't compelling, or not because the writing was poor. But the half I finished was scores worse than the first half. Resentment, revenge, murder, destruction, genocide. All knowingly and willfully. It crushes me to learn (not that I didn't already know) that our legacy is built on so much blood. It's one thing to learn this several degrees removed; history class, documentaries, other historical tellings. However reading a first-person accounting of pure destruction, told with a sense of pride and accomplishment, is galling.
EDIT: July 01, 2017 -
I finally finished this. I wonder why I bothered. Not that it wasn't compelling, or not because the writing was poor. But the half I finished was scores worse than the first half. Resentment, revenge, murder, destruction, genocide. All knowingly and willfully. It crushes me to learn (not that I didn't already know) that our legacy is built on so much blood. It's one thing to learn this several degrees removed; history class, documentaries, other historical tellings. However reading a first-person accounting of pure destruction, told with a sense of pride and accomplishment, is galling.