Daily Life of the Aztecs, on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest

The subject of this book is the life of the Mexicans―the Mexica, as they said themselves―at the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time, in the early 1500s, nobody, from the arid steppes of the north to the burning jungles of the isthmus, from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the shore of the Pacific, could have believed that this enormous empire, its culture, its art, its gods, were to go down a few years later in a historic cataclysm.

The period with which this book is concerned is distinguished from all others by the wealth of its written documentation. The Mexicans were interested in themselves and in their history; they were tireless speech-makers and great loves of verse, thus an immense quantity of books and legal documents came into being. Drawing on this rich recorded history, Soustelle creates a memorable portrait of Aztec society.

“Soustelle’s great book about the Aztecs . . . takes us deep into the life of this great society. . . . Soustelle has the rare quality of entering into the minds of those he is studying and seeing things from their point of view. . . . [His] book is one of the best ever written about the Aztecs, his portrait of their society is a triumph of scholarship, understanding, and literary skill.”—The Times Literary Supplement
“Probably the best general summary available of Aztec culture, both for the general reader and for the student.”—Hipanic American Historical Review