A monumental achievement of scholarship, this volume on the Nahua
Indians of Central Mexico (often called Aztecs) constitutes our best
understanding of any New World indigenous society in the period
following European contact.
Simply put, the purpose of this book is to throw light on the history of
Nahua society and culture through the use of records in Nahuatl,
concentrating on the time when the bulk of the extant documents were
written, between about 1540-50 and the late eighteenth century. At the
same time, the earliest records are full of implications for the very
first years after contact, and ultimately for the preconquest epoch as
well, both of which are touched on here in ways that are more than
introductory or ancillary.