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jatkin02 's review for:
The Conquistadores: The Untold History of Spanish Discovery and Empire
by Fernando Cervantes
Bit of a slog despite being a book for general readers from a commercial press, Viking, rather than a book of formal scholarship from an academic press.
There is apparatus, however -- chatty notes and references along with a robust bibliography which in and of itself will be valuable for readers looking to dig more deeply into a set of topics that often will be alien to them.
The historical record as presented here is revisionist in that it attempts to present the conquistadores in the context of the non-unitary, pre-nationalist political and religious context rather than from the viewpoint of unitary nationalism as asserted from the 19th century to the current day.
Some controversial stances derive from that. Among them the notion that the legal apparatus instituted by the conquistadores -- and the vice-regal regime it fostered -- was quite effective, long lasting, and (gird yourself) actually beneficial for and respectful to the indigenous populations it displaced.
The notes actually contain an assertion that the Spanish Inquisition "has emerged from recent investigations as a comparatively benign body, managing to bring about a relative degree of moderation by comparison with other judicial institutions of the time."
Spain's exiled, suppressed, and pogromed Jewish populations might like to have a word about that.
(That note is found on page 360, note #9; the index has it on page 358, however, which in the actual book is blank. See "commercial press," above. This sort of error rarely happens in books from presses that employ actual editors).
There is apparatus, however -- chatty notes and references along with a robust bibliography which in and of itself will be valuable for readers looking to dig more deeply into a set of topics that often will be alien to them.
The historical record as presented here is revisionist in that it attempts to present the conquistadores in the context of the non-unitary, pre-nationalist political and religious context rather than from the viewpoint of unitary nationalism as asserted from the 19th century to the current day.
Some controversial stances derive from that. Among them the notion that the legal apparatus instituted by the conquistadores -- and the vice-regal regime it fostered -- was quite effective, long lasting, and (gird yourself) actually beneficial for and respectful to the indigenous populations it displaced.
The notes actually contain an assertion that the Spanish Inquisition "has emerged from recent investigations as a comparatively benign body, managing to bring about a relative degree of moderation by comparison with other judicial institutions of the time."
Spain's exiled, suppressed, and pogromed Jewish populations might like to have a word about that.
(That note is found on page 360, note #9; the index has it on page 358, however, which in the actual book is blank. See "commercial press," above. This sort of error rarely happens in books from presses that employ actual editors).