Matthew Restall was born in London, and educated at Oxford and at UCLA. He is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Director of Latin American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the John Carter Brown Library, the Library of Congress, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has written twenty books and sixty articles and essays on the histories of the Mayas, of Africans in Spanish America, and of the Spanish Conquest. He has four daughters and is married to the art historian Amara Solari.
“Restall skillfully describes a subtler story of relationships both
loving and coercive. . . . Bold.”
*New Yorker*
“Restall has a well-earned reputation as a mythbuster in the
history of the New World. . . . A lively, original, and readable
book aimed at a wider audience. . . . A remarkable
achievement.”
*Wall Street Journal*
“Blending erudition with enthusiasm, Restall has achieved a rare
kind of work—serious scholarship that is impossible to put
down.”
*Publishers Weekly (starred review)*
“A methodical deconstruction of the myths surrounding Hernando
Cortés’ “Mexican conquest” and the surrender of Montezuma. . . .
Throughout, Restall’s assertions are well-supported and difficult
to refute, and the timeline that opens the book is particularly
helpful. An engaging revisionist exploration of one of human
history’s great lies.”
*Kirkus*
“A narrative that complicates our understanding of a history that,
though well-known, is wrong in many of its details. In correcting
it, Restall makes a fine contribution to the history of the New
World, one that should inspire other re-evaluations of our
cherished stories.”
*Kirkus (online)*
“Brilliant deep dive into the history and scholarship. . . .
Through diligent research, Restall presents readers with a
fascinating view of Montezuma, mounting a convincing argument that
Cortes’ self-serving accounts and the traditional narrative are
almost surely false.”
*BookPage*
“Matthew Restall illuminates every topic he touches. His new book
is the best study ever--the subtlest, most sensitive, most
challenging, and best-informed--on the conquest of Mexico.”
*Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Columbus and
Amerigo*
“A new, startlingly persuasive picture of what actually happened
during the Spanish Conquest, based on a radical question: What if
the tough, canny leaders of these native military empires didn’t
suddenly fold up like wet cardboard at the arrival of a couple of
hundred bearded oddities from some faraway place?”
*Charles Mann, author of 1491*
“In a deeply learned history that reads like a detective story,
Restall reveals the Gordian knot of myth and fiction that have long
hidden the real history of the encounter between Montezuma and
Cortes. The history of the Americas will never be the same.”
*Louis S. Warren, author of God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance
Religion and the Making of Modern America*
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