Name: The Angry Aztecs
ISBN: 9780590195690

Terry Deary

Find out about powerful priests, weird warriors, and the cunning Conquistadors, in this book which provides the foulest facts about Motecuhzoma, Cuahtemoc and other Angry Aztecs whose idea of fun was ripping out human hearts. Part of a series of books about history with the nasty bits left in!

The Angry Aztecs

Gavin

I think these were the only history books I read until I was 20 years old. It sufficed!

Obviously it's not good for your only exposure to history to be the 100 most dramatic moments, the 100 most elite and unrepresentative people. (For each page of a regular history book I should imagine the lives of a thousand peasants.) But very few people have any grasp of history beyond this superficial roll call, so it didn't hurt me much to delay it.

Our need for "people's history" is great: it at least has a chance of being an accurate picture of the past. (Many particular instances of people's history are fatally false or misleading though, because the contrarianism and ideological heat of the topic draws parasites and shills.)