David Carballo's Collision of Worlds represents another go at the meeting between Cortes and Moctezuma. Restall blurbed this one. So, I'll compare these two.
Carballo is constructive, where Restall was (what the cool kids call) deconstructive. Restall also struck this reader as being a bit of a dick. I admit Carballo's prose, also, has suffered from Current Year style: he capitalises the B in 'Black', for instance. Here, though, I detect similar to what I found in Stephen Shoemaker's latest; I don't know that Carballo means it.
Carballo sees Cortes as exerting more agency than Restall did - at least, after the Night Of Tears. When considering this book at the 'store I looked first for the battle of Otumba, which I (now) consider fateful and which Restall sneered at. Carballo also lets the reader in on Quauhchechollan: whether Cortes led the attack, or ordered someone else to do it. Against Restall the event works either way: Cortes acted as a leader. I don't recall that Restall had so much as mentioned this.
So I bought the book, which I didn't for Restall.
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