The Conquest of America: The Question of the OtherA classic in its field, The Conquest of America is a study of cultural confrontation in the New World, with implications far beyond sixteenth-century America. The book offers an original interpretation of both Columbus's discovery of America and the Spaniards' subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Using sixteenth-century sources, the distinguished French writer and critic Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistadors and of the Aztecs, adversaries in a clash of cultures that resulted in the near extermination of Mesoamerica's Indian population. A new foreword by Anthony Pagden discusses the implications of Todorov's landmark study. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - dorin.budusan - LibraryThingI had to read this for a seminar on multiculturalism. It advances a very provocative theory about the Spanish colonials' contact with natives after the discovery of America, and the destruction of their native cultures. Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - alen2379 - LibraryThingA truly wonderful book. A semiotician's view on the historical developments of a clash of two cultures. Some of the historical claims Todorov made were absolutely astounding, like the total victim ... Read full review
Contents
The Discovery of America | 3 |
Columbus as Interpreter | 14 |
The Reasons for the Victory | 53 |
Understanding Taking Possession and Destroying | 127 |
Equality or Inequality | 146 |
Enslavement Colonialism and Communication | 168 |
Typology of Relations to the Other | 185 |
Durán or the Hybridization of Cultures | 202 |
255 | |
265 | |
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Common terms and phrases
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