History of the Conquest of Peru (Modern Library) - Hardcover

William Hickley Prescott

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9780679603047: History of the Conquest of Peru (Modern Library)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679603042 ISBN 13: 9780679603047

Publisher: Random House Inc, 1998

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A definitive study of the ancient Inca culture, which was defeated by the Spanish, includes a portrayal of the character of Peru's conquerors

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About the Author:

Prescott was from a prosperous, old New England family. In 1811 he entered Harvard, where his academic record was good but undistinguished; he had serious difficulties with mathematics, and in later life the prospect of appraising the mathematical achievements of the aboriginal Mexicans almost prevented him from completing his work. Near the end of his junior year, a crust of bread thrown during a melee in the student commons caused virtual blindness in his left eye; the weakness of his other eye, caused by infection, sometimes prevented him from carrying on any kind of literary work. Throughout his life, Prescott's vision seems to have fluctuated from good to total blindness, and he often resorted to the use of a noctograph, a writing grid with parallel wires that guided a stylus over a chemically treated surface. Substantial portions of all his books and correspondence were composed on this device. He died in 1859.

From the Inside Flap:

Originally published in 1847, History of the Conquest of Peru, a companion volume to William H. Prescott's masterly History of the Conquest of Mexico, continues his vivid chronicle of Spanish exploits in the New World. The book's commanding vision of Pizarro's tumultuous overthrow of the Inca empire has secured its reputation as a classic in the literature of Latin American history.
------"History of the Conquest of Peru represents an author's triumph over his materials," observed Donald G. Darnell, one of the historian's several biographers. "Prescott exploits to the fullest any opportunities for dramatic effects that history might provide him. . . . If there is one [distinguishing] feature of the Conquest of Peru . . . it is the portrayal of the Spanish character, that striking fusion of courage, cruelty, pride, and gallows humor. . . . We seem to be overhearing dialogue and observing firsthand the interaction between the Spaniar

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