Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T15:16:48.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Aztec political economy: a new conceptual frame

Review products

Kenneth G.Hirth. The Aztec economic world: merchants and markets in ancient Mesoamerica. 2016. xviii+382 pages, 50 b&w illustrations, 20 tables. New York: Cambridge University Press; 978-1-107-14277-0 hardback $125.
Deborah L.Nichols, Frances F.Berdan & Michael E.Smith (ed.). Rethinking the Aztec economy. 2017. vi+310 pages, b&w illustrations, tables. Tucson: University of Arizona Press; 978-0-8165-3551-4 hardback $65.
Deborah L.Nichols & EnriqueRodríguez-Alegría (ed.). The Oxford handbook of the Aztecs. 2017. xxix+748 pages, several b&w illustrations. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 978-0-19-934196-2 hardback £97.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2017

Gary M. Feinman
Gary M. Feinman*
Affiliation:
Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605–2496, USA (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For those in search of current perspectives on the Aztec with a focus on matters economic, I heartily recommend a deep dive into these three volumes. Each book offers an insightful vantage on what we presently know about this pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican empire, as well as how new discoveries over the last 60–70 years force serious rethinking of both the long-term history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and key tenets that underpin pre-industrial political economies more broadly. Empires were a relatively rare phenomenon in the pre-industrial world, especially in the ancient Americas, and few have been so skilfully studied through a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates both historical texts and archaeology.

Type
Book reviews
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 360 , December 2017 , pp. 1663 - 1666
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Peterson, F. 1959. Ancient Mexico: an introduction to the pre-Hispanic cultures. New York: Capricorn.Google Scholar
Wolf, E.R. 1959. Sons of the Shaking Earth. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, E.R. (ed.) 1976. The Valley of Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar