Hugh Thomas is one of Britain's most admired historians, and the leading expert on Spain and the New World A vivid and unparalleled account Some of the great subjects in history: Columbus in 1492, the Spanish Inquisition, the Conquistadores and the Aztecs.
Hugh Thomas has won the Somerset Maugham Prize and the National Book Award for History. He was chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies 1979-89 and received a peerage in 1981. He lives in London.
Almost every aspect of the colonial enterprise is ably covered... as an intelligent and incisive narrative the book would be hard to better... It is unusual to finish so long a book wishing for more. - SUNDAY TELEGRAPHA splendid volume, bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fascinating details, punctuated by well-chosen quotations from contemporaries and eyewitnesses, and accompanied by many maps and excellent illustrations. It is an ambitious project, magnificently carried out, and his publishers have done him proud. - LITERARY REVIEW - Paul JohnsonAs a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture and the diorama... Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on, powered not, as such a book might otherwise be, by compassion and anger in the face of conquest and exploitation, but by the writer's infinite wonder at the courage, audacity and resilience of Renaissance Spain to which this is the most handsomest of tributes. - Spectator - Jonathan KeatesAn epic history of an extraordinary age. - THE SCOTSMANThomas brings alive the spirit of the era through descriptions of explorers expectations and delivers the tragedy of Europe's effect on its conquered lands. - GOOD BOOK GUIDEThere is considerable Jewish interest in historian Hugh Thomas's Rivers of Gold. It contains much about the machinations behind the 1492 expulsion and notes that Jewish conversos continu
A momentous year for Western civilization, 1492 saw the defeat of the last Islamic state in western Europe and the setting forth of expeditions that would open up an entire hemisphere to European exploration and development. The year 1522 marked the conquest of the Aztecs by Cort?s and the return of Magellan's expeditions from the first circumnavigation of the world. Thomas (Conquest: Cort?s, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico) here considers Spanish explorers and colonizers from 1492 to 1522, profiling both the famous (e.g., Columbus) and lesser-known but important figures like Cardinal Cisneros and the governors of the Indies. Thomas also relates the effects that the New World had on Spain. One drawback Thomas's Eurocentric approach is evident in his chapter on the conquest of Mexico, which seems to understate the importance of Cort?s's Indian allies, stressing their value as porters and not as fighters. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Almost every aspect of the colonial enterprise is ably covered... as an intelligent and incisive narrative the book would be hard to better... It is unusual to finish so long a book wishing for more. - SUNDAY TELEGRAPHA splendid volume, bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fascinating details, punctuated by well-chosen quotations from contemporaries and eyewitnesses, and accompanied by many maps and excellent illustrations. It is an ambitious project, magnificently carried out, and his publishers have done him proud. - LITERARY REVIEW - Paul JohnsonAs a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture and the diorama... Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on, powered not, as such a book might otherwise be, by compassion and anger in the face of conquest and exploitation, but by the writer's infinite wonder at the courage, audacity and resilience of Renaissance Spain to which this is the most handsomest of tributes. - Spectator - Jonathan KeatesAn epic history of an extraordinary age. - THE SCOTSMANThomas brings alive the spirit of the era through descriptions of explorers expectations and delivers the tragedy of Europe's effect on its conquered lands. - GOOD BOOK GUIDEThere is considerable Jewish interest in historian Hugh Thomas's Rivers of Gold. It contains much about the machinations behind the 1492 expulsion and notes that Jewish conversos continu
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