The Spatial Politics of Idolatry and Magic in Colonial Mexico
For the Spanish colonizers of Mexico in the sixteenth century, the concept of 'excess' - even the word itself - covered a multitude of sins, including idolatry and magic. In Sins of Excess, Anderson Hagler uses the language of excess as a lens for examining how the colonizers of New Spain conflated cultural diversity into a superficially - and ......
Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies migrate from Canada to Mexico. Their incredible journey-nearly 3,000 miles long-takes them through Oklahoma, Texas, and other US states, where butterfly devotees eagerly await their arrival. The monarch migration is a brilliant demonstration of nature's ingenuity, but the delicate creatures face many ......
On two separate days in August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of these cataclysmic bombings draws near, American and Japanese citizens are seeking new ways to memorialize these events for future generations. In Discordant Memories, Alison Fields ......
Pedro de Alvarado and the Conquest of Guatemala, 1520-1541
The conquest of Guatemala was brutal, prolonged and complex, fraught with intrigue and deception, and not at all clear-cut. Yet views persist of it as an armed confrontation whose stakes were evident and whose outcomes were decisive, especially in favor of the Spaniards. A critical reappraisal is long overdue, one that calls for us to reconsider ......
The Mayas believed the four gods, the Bacabs, held up the sky. The Bacabs were also invoked to heal disease. Ritual of the Bacabs: A Book of Maya Incantations is the first English translation of this Maya manuscript, dating back to colonial times. Discovered in the early twentieth century, the manuscript's origins are traced to the golden ......
The 10th Mountain Division and the Rise of Mountain Warfare
Mountains, Carl von Clausewitz said, introduce a “retarding element” into warfare. To fight in mountains, armies must overcome this challenge via survival strategies and mobility. But the techniques and technologies for doing so are best found in civilian skiing and mountaineering communities, a situation almost unique to mountain ......
When war broke out between Great Britain and the United States in 1812, Sir George Prevost, captain general and governor in chief of British North America, was responsible for defending a group of North American colonies that stretched as far as the distance from Paris to Moscow. He also commanded one of the largest British overseas forces ......
Euripides' Alcestis - perhaps the most anthologized Attic drama--is an ideal text for students reading their first play in the original Greek. Literary commentaries and language aids in most editions are too advanced or too elementary for intermediate students of the language, but in their new student edition, C. A. E. Luschnig and H. M. Roisman ......
A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California
John L. Kessell's Spain in the Southwest presents a fast-paced, abundantly illustrated history of the Spanish colonies that became the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. With an eye for human interest, Kessell tells the story of New Spain's vast frontier--today's American Southwest and Mexican North--which for two centuries ......
