A major contribution, this book is a treasure of up-to-date archaeological documentation plus analysis and interpretation of the architecture and engineering of the legendary Inca site. As scholar and frequent academic study-tour leader to Machu Picchu, I can attest to the accuracy of the authors' observations presented in a lucid text and complemented by a wealth of excellent black-and-white photographs, detailed site plans and architectural drawings. In an unusual collaborative effort, American engineer Kenneth R. Wright and Peruvian archaeologist Alfredo Valencia Zegarra join their expertise to describe with painstaking care the multiple challenges that were faced by the Inca builders including geography, site selection, engineering infrastructure, city planning, water system, drainage, agriculture, stonework, and construction methods. In addition, Gordon McEwan contributes an essential chapter on the cultural backgrounf of the Inca civilization; and Ruth M. Wright's "Walking Tour" chapter provides a concise, clear guide for exploring the main site as well as other attractions nearby. Destined to become a classic and model study for other Inca sites, this is an invaluable resource for experts in the field and general public alike.

Machu Picchu, A Civil Engineering Marvel is an extraordinary accomplishment. It is not merely a travel book or ruins guide. It is the result of at least five years of study, exploration and detailed mapping by a competent civil engineer and actually is a tremendous contribution to serious archaeology on the history and accomplishments of the Peruvian Inca empire.

Mr. Wright, a water engineering specialist, worked with close cooperation with a government archaeological expert from Peru headquarters. His particular specialized interest was the drinking and waste disposal system for the people who inhabitated the site, which is called a "palace" but is actually much more than that. He also detailed the construction of the agricultural terraces. It is a scholastic textbook of the first rank.

I expected a civil engineering perspective on one of my favorite subjects, Machu Picchu, to be at least a little dry. Machu Picchu; A Civil Engineering Marvel is anything but. The book melds technical information on a compelling topic with observations, insights and scads of breathtaking photographs. The result is a technically substantial engineering survey presented as a coffee-table book. I have read a lot of materials on Machu Picchu, yet I can't remember the last time I encountered so much new information in one place. The book explores such engineering facets of Machu Picchu as planning, hydrology, hydraulics, drainage, agriculture and construction, and demonstrates why these things are significant and interesting. Machu Picchu; A Civil Engineering Marvel breathes extra life into this basic information by providing context, analysis, archaeological perspective and even a walking guide for touring the site.

Machu Picchu; A Civil Engineering Marvel has application, understandability and appeal for such diverse individuals as anthropologists, archaeologists, travelers, scenery-lovers and historians, as well as engineers. Machu Picchu buffs like myself will certainly enjoy the book's refreshing, new angle.

There are some things in life that appeal mainly to the connoisseur: others you would have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by. Machu Picchu belongs to the latter category. It makes a huge impression on all who see it. However, while it is both possible and pleasant to wander around the ruins in a dream-like state, soaking up the atmosphere, most people would appreciate the Incas' achievements all the more if they understood more about the functions of the various buildings and the problems that had to be overcome, e.g. in supplying the city with water. I have visited Machu Picchu twice and considered myself fairly well informed but learnt a great deal from each chapter of this book. Anyone who reads the book, and better still takes it along and uses it at the site in the manner intended by the authors, will get even more out of their visit than they would otherwise. Next time I go Machu Picchu, whenever that will be, I will see things in a new light.

Late one July afternoon in 1982, I found myself perched on a ledge overlooking the Machu Picchu archaeological site some 500 feet below. Having probed the bushes near the site's so-called guard tower, I had found some overgrown stepping stones and had begun hiking upward. One half-buried step led to the next, and within an hour I had reached this ledge. Along the way I had discovered a remarkable semi-circular stone staircase -- and managed to avoid the bushmasters said to be slithering nearby.

As an anthropologist myself, I wish that I had had a copy of a guidebook even half as good as that authored by Ruth Wright and Alfredo Valencia Zegarra. Combining a clearly written text with intriguing photos and practical diagrams, The Machu Picchu Guidebook is the single best publication on this site that I have seen. While written primarily for the astute traveler, it will be of use to professionals as well.

My own work with indigenous water systems in places like Guyana and Indonesia led to my cursory examination in 1982 of the system at Machu Picchu. It proved fascinating, but I had little time for study. To their credit, Ruth Wright and her husband, Ken Wright (in conjunction with a number of their colleagues from the U.S. and Peru) instituted a remarkably thorough archaeological/engineering investigation of this Incan system in the 1990s. This same degree of care and attention to detail is seen in the guidebook, which had its genesis in their archaeological research.

In conclusion, it should be noted that Ruth Wright is a former chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of The Explorers Club. Her book brings an explorer's enthusiasm to Machu Picchu, while maintaining high standards of authorship.

Built in the mid-fifteenth century by Inca royalty and found by Hiram Bingham in 1911, Machu Picchu has become one of South America's premier travel destinations, experienced by more than 300,000 tourists every year. Ruth Wright and her husband Ken Wright of Wright Water Engineers were granted a permit in 1994 from the Instituto Nacional de Cultura de Peru to study this famous site and teamed up with resident Machu Picchu archaeologist Alfredo Valencia Zegarra to create the most authoritative, detailed, and up-to-date guide currently available to the general public. The Machu Picchu Guidebook is specifically designed to be used as a do-it-yourself tour book enhanced with a full-color fold-out map and 150 illustrations. Whether as an armchair traveler with an interest in Incan culture and artifacts, or an on-site visitor seeking to explore the marvelous wonder of this ancient Incan city, The Machu Picchu Guidebook is a rewarding, "reader friendly" guide to this grandly designed archaeological treasure.

This book is full of the most current information and research on hairless breeds. It debunks the numerous myths about the Chinese Crested and is worth reading for that alone! The information in invaluable. The two authors seem to be in a battle now about personal disagreements, but don't let their games steer you away from your personal education. It's embarassing to the breed that they're airing their laundry in public, but both of their contributions to the book are excellent, and it's worth reading! The pictures in this coffee-table size book alone are worth the steep price. I had to think a while before I coughed up the big price tag, but I'm happy to say it was worth it. Happy Reading!

This book shows an incredible amount of scholarship, a wealth of photographs and a writing style that will appeal to anyone from the novice dog-owner to the expert breeder. The section on genetics will be of special interest to all and the photographs both illustrate the authors' points and provide amazing appeal.

Buy it! Read it! Read it again!

A friend loaned this to me, and I decided I had to have the book myself. The authors have compiled an extraordinary encyclopedia on hairless dogs -- from antiquity to the present -- with no effort spared to find every possible reference or archive photo. It's so well done, and for the breeder or the lucky owner of a Chinese Crested (or Mexican Hairless or Xoloxcuinti), this book is indispensible. Some fun facts: the Chinese apparently used to call them "healing dogs", because the were so useful as hot water bottles for arthritic or bedridden patients. And indigenous homes of South and Central American Indians often had 30 or more hairless dogs in the house. (Without hair, they were much better adapted to a hot/tropical environment with a high flea and tick population.) Oh, another interesting fact is that of the 2,000 or so dog breeds that have existed, only some 400 are extant today. Many of them have been eaten -- and in fact, the Chinese Crested has very often been served on the dinner table in times of famine. There's even a picture of a Chinese man on a bicycle, hauling a pile of dead Cresteds... A fascinating book with many illustrations, including some excellent color photos. Highly Recommended.

Where does an explorer go these days? There is no more "terra incognita" on the maps, and ballooning, sailing, or crossing Antarctica are often reduced to webcasted stunts. If you long to go through jungle, battling snakes and mosquitoes, to find previously undiscovered ancient sites, Hugh Thomson can tell you were to go: Peru. In fact, twenty years ago, he was working in a pub, and a drinker there told him a story involving an Inca fortress that had been discovered, but was so poorly documented, it had gotten lost again. "Not only was it a glamorous idea, it was, unlike most of those told in the pub, a true story." Finding that ruin seemed more attractive than continuing to tend bar: "I had nothing to lose. So I went." This is the start of the story of Thomson's _The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland_ (Overlook Press). It is no surprise that in this lively and intelligent exploration memoir, Thomson does re-discover the re-lost archeological site, but it is surprising that this is only the first part of the book, not the climax. By the time the book has finished, he has hiked to many lost cities in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and reviewed the remarkably complicated Inca history all along the way.

Of course the book is full of recountings of mistakes and scares, from embarrassingly split pants to humorous misunderstandings between the gringos and the natives (including a young girl who precipitously falls in love with the author). This is not a how-to manual, but those preparing to explore the area would do well to heed Thomson's words on snakes, guinea pigs, gnats, pack mules, and especially, guides. Much of the book is not just a history of the Incas, but a history of exploration of Inca sites. There are fine summary portraits here of an assortment of strange characters who have trekked some of these paths before Thomson. A prime one was Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu, who thought erroneously that it was a religious monument to the Virgins of the Sun. This has sparked a lot of New Age nonsense. It was a winter camp for the Inca court, and Thomson's own view of the exalted position of Machu Picchu is simply that the Incas had a fondness, just as we do, for magnificent mountain views.

Thomson's exhilarating and self-deprecatingly humorous account of his own travels vies with the ancient history and modern history revealed here. All are expertly told. Thomson follows a trail of Inca history to the almost forgotten site of Vilcabamba, still unexcavated and obscured by thick vegetation. It was the last remnant of the great Inca Empire. Digressions of descriptions of the modern towns he goes through, and a welcome appreciation of the great Cuzco photographer Martin Chambi, are easy bypaths on the way. The book has excellent maps, a glossary of terms from the Spanish and the local Quechua language, and an genealogical chart of the Inca emperors. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book to put our currently fashionable fascination with Inca sites in a realistic context.

While planning a trip to Peru, I bought a copy of Thomson's book to get a different spin on the place than that offered by the typical guides and histories. I am delighted that I did. Thomson's witty writing stays away from overly PC sentimentality while still demonstrating a deep respect for the culture and the people of the Andes. Thomson also avoids dry academic discourse and gives the reader some insight into the vibrancy of Andean culture and the richness of its history. Although the book will not tell you what hotels to stay in or what time the train leaves for Machu Picchu, I highly recommend it for anyone considering a trip to the region.

Any young history student can tell you the story of the Incas. Bedazzled by stories of cities built of stone and overflowing with gold, children dream of hidden treasures in South America. Tales of the conquistadors --- the culture they conquered and the riches they took --- are told throughout the world, inspiring young men and women to leave their homes and venture into the South American mountains. British explorer and documentary filmmaker Hugh Thomson was one of those adventurers.

Lured to Peru by the story of Llactapata, a ruin discovered by noted explorer Hiram Bingham but lost again beneath the vines and trees of Peru's jungle, Thomson and his team embarked upon a journey to rediscover the missing ruin. Accompanied by local guides, Thomson hiked the Inca trail through the Andean Mountains to his destination --- encountering entertaining locals, interesting cuisine, swarms of gnats and the occasional snake. Nearly twenty years after his first excursion, Thomson would return to Peru to resume his studies of the Inca ruins.

THE WHITE ROCK is not only the story of Thomson's explorations, but also the history of the Inca culture and the archaeologists and explorers who have recorded it. Thomson never hesitates to give credit where it is due, a notable contrast to the often overblown egos of explorers. True to documentarian form, Thomson offers an unbiased, honest account of his travels in Peru, highlighting various aspects of its culture, arts and inhabitants. He also points out what he believes are discrepancies in the historical chronicle of the Incas and offers plausible alternatives. A combination of a history text and travel memoir, THE WHITE ROCK offers the reader much more than other books in either of these genres. Thomson's balance of humor and scholarship makes for an enjoyable reading experience, and the forty-five black and white photographs beautifully illustrate the mystical draw of the Incas.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

This book is one of my favorites in recent years. I have become interested in the history of foods and Sophie Coe was an incredible scholar. Her books are great reading and amusing. Unfortunately she is no longer with us but she has left us with two wonderful books on the foods of the Americas (The True History of Chocolate--finished by her husband Michael Coe, another great writer of history. I highly reccommend this one as well).

I purchased this book based entirely on the review by kneisl. I am glad that I did. I had no idea that so much of our everyday food came from the "New World." Peanuts, vanilla, tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, beans, squash, tortillas, tamales, etc. all were eaten by the Aztec/Maya/ Inca Indians long before the Europeans arrived. Some of these food types date back to 7000 BC. I found this stunning. I had always incorrectly believed that most Mexican food came from Spain.

The book is thouroughly researched, well-written and easy to understand. There are more foods mentioned than those I have just described, so you'll have to read the book.

A few years ago, I wrote a paper on the original cuisine of the western hemisphere before European exploration.Prepared for the drudgery of a paper, I checked this book out of the library, expecting myself to be put to sleep by the dryness of the topic.How wrong I was! Ms. Coe's book was stunning in how it broadened my understanding of food. Every chapter is chock full of interesting research and conclusions. Even the index was remarkable for its detail. You will be informed and entertained by amazing stories about what was eaten, how it was eaten, and why it was eaten. You will learn the surprisingly interesting history of corn. You will learn the origins of the algae spirulina, recently come to our health food stores. The fascinating story behind the newly popular grain amaranth will interest you. Many old theories (eg, that certain Mesoamerican indians were cannibalistic), are in one stroke shown to be false. The cuisine of the western hemisphere *IS* the cuisine of the world. The staple foods of Europe and Asia are often Maya/Aztec/Inca in origin. The humble potato and tomato, for instance, DID NOT EXIST *ANYWHERE* in the Eastern hemisphere until they were brought back from the west. Makes me wonder WHAT, exactly, did the Italians eat before they had the tomato?

Imagined Empires is an amazing book. It is intellectually challenging, well written, and impressively researched. Literature has helped shaped what it means to be an American, and Eric Wertheimer's scholarship shines a light, for the first time, on a crucial influence in the history of American letters. Our literary forebears were more than "Old World" immigrants set into the rough hewn wilderness of this continent -- they were also intellectual descendants of the great pre-Columbian empires. This book does a startling thing: It teaches us something new.

This book incorporates the views of American supriority and thestripping of tradtional Native American Empires from the canon ofAmerican text. Dr. Wertheimer exposes the nationalistic views of Post-Revolutionistic American writers in their attitudes towards the Incas and Aztecs. He also gives importance to the struggle of Latin American countries independence first from Spain, and then, the United States.

Though I am waiting for the re-release of this book, I am giving it a positive anticipatory review on the merits of the author's intelligence and unequaled writing ability. Having studied under Professor Wertheimer in several literature courses, I can attest to his acute knowledge of American Literature as well as his dedication to his research. You will undoubtedly discover after reading this book that you have been provoked into thought beyond your imagination.

I was enthralled by this book, it is excellently written and gives the reader a true feeling of what it is like to have "Gold Fever". I have recently finished the book but I am reading it again because it is that good! It is also extremely educational, I knew nothing about the Incas until I read Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon. I am now longing to take a trip to the Llanganatis mountains, not in search of treasure, more on a pilgrimage than anything else.

This was a great story of the possibility that vast wealth in gold and silver are still hidden in the Andes. The various doccuments and treasure hunters that the author unearthed and befriended made for a ripping yarn. His own expedition to the trecherous landscape where the treasure is supposedly hidden was a real adventure. He cared about the people he wrote about and the reader will too. Loved this book!

I first read Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon in the original Atheneum hardcover. What a fine book! It's not your usual treasure-hunt adventure, but a sensitive portrayal of South American culture and dreams. Well, it's also a treasure hunt, and you can't believe Lourie lived through it all to tell the tale. I'm so happy to see it in paperback A really fine book by a fine author. His young-adult books are extraordinary as well. But this one's a must for any reader interested in the Andes, in treasure hunting, in the human soul in darkest peril. Five stars all the way. This is one of those books you keep thinking about for years.

It's another of Shah's peculiar passions, shrunken heads, that spurs his quest up the Amazon in search of the legendary fliers of Peru. "..." Alas, all the heads at this invitation-only auction ("...") are scooped up and Shah's only consolation is the cryptic remark of a French collector that if he was forty years younger, he'd seek out the Birdmen of Peru.

As it happens, this also dovetails with Shah's interest in flight (...), and after some serious research into scant legends of pre-Wright flight, he takes the Frenchman's advice.

Shah, born into Afghan nobility, brought up in Britain, combines a neophyte's wariness with a a scholar's penchant for research and a dogged will to follow the clues anywhere. As a writer, his gift for capturing the absurd is surpassed only by his ability to laugh at himself, making for an aborbing, educational and hilarious trip through the remoter regions of Peru and Inca culture.

Ridiculously over-supplied, Shah struggles with his mounds of luggage from campsite to crowded bus and train, from dusty village to timeless ruins to, at last, the jungles of the Amazon rain forest. To start, a four-day backpacking trip across mountain passes brings him to sunrise over the lost Inca city of Macchu Pichu, missed by the gold-hunting conquistadors, but overrun by busloads of modern tourists. Here Shah examines a temple dedicated to the condor, but his guide tells him his obsession with flight misses the point. " 'Whether the Incas flew or not is irrelevant,' she said. 'Instead, you must ask why they wanted to fly.' " Shah takes this advice to heart and incorporates the spiritual element into his quest.

Passing the time with shopkeepers, launderers, expatriates and anyone else who crosses his path, Shah acquires good luck totems and encounters the looted graves of Peru's mummies, the mummies themselves littering the ground. In small museums he finds hundreds of woven birdmen in the mummies' exquisite funerary robes. He pauses in a town famous for vampires (to tourists anyway) and stays in a deserted luxury hotel, haunted by a bloodthirsty ghost. He reaches his own conclusions about the Nazca Lines, ancient desert etchings of animals whose forms can only be seen from the sky. He meets several shaman, one of whom cures Shah's troubled mind with a rite which involves a guinea pig and a prohibition against shaking hands for 40 days. Others use datura or curare.

Meandering, Shah makes his way toward the Shuar, the Birdmen, who live still in the remote jungle. A group of missionaries was murdered only the previous month for arriving with empty hands, he's told. Loaded with gifts as well as his state-of-the-art gear, Shah at last embarks in search of the tribes and their ayahuasca, a mind-altering "Vine of the Dead," their secret of flight.

His guide is a taciturn naturalist and Vietnam vet, an American named Richard, who seldom sleeps. The mysteries of nature are Richard's passion...Their transportation is a half-rotten hulk and after their first night, Shah discovers his shoes have been gnawed by rats. He decrees death to the rodents but the boat is shortly overrun with cockroaches and then wolf spiders - staples of the rats' diet. At a shoreside village, Shah buys new rats.

This is only the beginning. After arriving at his first Shuar village (...) Shah is taken to a shaman in the jungle and his description of the trip perfectly captures the difficulty of the modern traveler: "..." By the time he arrives at the Shaman's village he contemplates taking up life there. "..." But only here, deep in its natural home, can he fulfill his desire and learn the Shuar's ancient secret of flight.

Reader's of Shah's previous book, "Sorcerer's Apprentice" (a quest for magic in India) will recognize his unique affinity for the bizarre and surreal encountered while fulfilling his avid curiosity for the knowledge and traditions of other cultures. His writing is elegant, witty and often enigmatic and his eyewitness information is enhanced with meticulous research, seamlessly woven into the narrative. Shah's travel writing is in a class by itself.

There are perilous things that can happen if you try to start a collection of shrunken heads. Tahir Shah was "desperate to start a collection of my own," and so he showed up at a secretive, invitation-only auction of eleven such heads under the auspices of a "learned British society." To his dismay, within fifteen minutes, the whole set of heads was knocked down to a Japanese collector who had been "trying to corner the shrunken head market for years." The evening was not a total loss, as an elderly Frenchmen advised Shah to go to Peru. For the shrunken heads? Why, no, for the birdmen. This didn't make any sense, and the Frenchman would not elaborate, but a week later an envelope came from Paris, bearing an old feather and a quotation from a 1638 book that said Incas flew like birds over the jungle. Shah was launched onto research and travels recounted in _Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru_ (Arcade Publishing), and they make for frequently hilarious reading. He is a different type of explorer, pursuing an idea rather than going to regions no one has ever seen, and has endured with good humor atrocious travel arrangements and louche characters that would make other people scream.

After some research, he starts, of course, at the current hotspot for archeological tourism, Machu Picchu, which he finds looks from above like a condor. He goes to Nazca, the region of the famous patterns in the desert that only make sense when seen from high above. He is pursued by a Parisienne who is looking for a father for her children, and who comes equipped with a dried lama fetus which can be made, she says, into an aphrodisiac soup. In the village of Trompeteros, he attends with all the citizens the beauty contest sponsored by Inca Brand Condoms. (The master of ceremonies declares that the beauties on the stage were "clean-living girls who always used an Inca condom.") The crowd goes wild over every entrant, especially number six, who for the talent portion performs a dance which includes sucking live tree grubs from the floor and eating them. The search loops around into the upper Amazon regions, when Shah is convinced that rather than physical flight, the birdmen were psychic, or psychedelic, fliers. The experts in such flying were the Shuar tribe, the headshrinkers themselves. He finds a Vietnam vet who is only at home in the jungle, to act as guide and to hire a boat, which turns out to be rotten and full of rats and wolf spiders. After a trip of hellish tortures, they wind up in Shuar country only to be shocked: the Shuars have not only given up headshrinking and other tribal rituals, they have not only become Christians, but they have become evangelists. The missionaries have not, however, taken what would have been the fatuous step of trying to make the tribesmen abstain from ayahuasca, a hallucinogen. Shah's trip on it is the climax of the book. Yes, there were Inca birdmen.

This is a hilarious, picaresque tale which is not without its scholarly moments; Shah has done a good deal of research, and even has appendices to tell about hallucinogens and the theory of shrunken heads. There is a good deal of more-or-less practical information; read this book and you will ever after be able to perform a simple check to tell a good shrunken head from a bad one. His Vietnam vet dispenses the Five Rules of Jungle Travel: "One: chop stems downward and as low to the ground as possible; then they'll fall away from the path. Two: go slow, as speed only snags you on fish-hook thorns. Three: rest frequently and drink liquid. Four: love the jungle, don't hate it. Five: check your groin for parasites twice an hour." Words to live by. And if, by chance, the closest you get to a jungle expedition is to be reading this merry recollection, you will consider yourself lucky.

Beginning with the Wright brothers, Tahir Shah spreads his flying carpet for the unsuspecting reader of travel tomes.

There is a legend that a great bird which, if found, would confer ultimate fulfillment for the seeker. It drops a feather within the mundane where an ordinary man or woman may find it, and, from this single clue, find the fabulous bird. This theme was exploited by Stephen Spielberg in "Close Encounters of the Third Time," where Richard Dryfus begins with the slightest hint of a meeting place he must attain for a rendexvous with superior beings beyond earth, then slowly, intuitively builds a model of the site until he recognizes the place and goes there, arriveing just in time.

While TRAIL OF FEATHERS is ostensibly a literal, if zany, hike through the jungles of Peru in search of the reality behind winged men woven into the ancient textiles of the region, it bears all of the elements of a mythic search for ultimate meaning. Several contacts scold the author for his obsession with flying, which, they say, is nothing. All that counts, they tell him, is the reason for flight and the treasure brought back to earth.

The author's search for the flying men of Peru seems akin to the Australian aboriginee "walk about." As Shah again and again chooses the most uncomfortable means of travel and lodging, I could not help suspecting that his was a ritual journey and that the trail, not the feathers nor the flying, was the destination.

Reading what seemed quite similar to Latin American "magical reality," I learned an enormous amount about Peru's real history, geography and its people--far more, I felt, than I could have learned in any other format, unless I went there myself and took the same risks as the author. That he emerged alive would seem to place the whole tale in question but for the Vietnam vet and jungle expert who shows up just in time to guide Shah and to keep him alive in the process. I got the feeling that there was a hidden hand behind this particular journey. I don't mean mysticism. Hints, such as the ease with which Shah could replenish as needed lost money, point to a human infastructure. The book not only solves dozens of mysteries. It's reading was for me a mysterious journey in its own right.

Peters does a great job of bringing a long lost world to life. Any Inca enthusiast should read it. Peters really did his homework and it shows. I was dissappointed in the overblown homosexual relationship part of the story. It really didn't fit the rest of the book. Yes, it was well illustrated in Moche and Chimu pottery but it seemed that they were just thrown in to bring to light some contemporary issues. In spite of that I did enjoy the book very much and like I said, can't wait to read it again.

I have read this book numerous times and every time I pick it up I can't seem to put it down. Peters has obviously done his homework. The characters are human and wonderfully written.

I read this book seven years ago and still can't get it from my mind. It enriched my understanding of the Inca culture at its height and through its demise. I delighted as never before in a visit to NYC's Metropolitan Museum as I found Incan artifacts like those used by the characters in the book. THE INCAS is lengthy but a classic "I wish it would never end" tale. I have since searched for the other books in Peters' series and have had no luck. Anybody have any ideas???? I've tried to locate Mr. Peters. If you read this, please tell me how I can read more of your work. It is so well researched and written. Congratulations!

I read this book for a class on the emergence of state society. The book was great for its review of Aztec ideology and its resulting effects on the society. Too many authors ignore the importance of the way people think. However, archaeological evidence does not support their conclusions about the Inca's ancestor worship. But the book was good read, very fast paced and enjoyable. I recommend it.

I read this book as part of a research project into the rise and fall of the Mexica, or Aztec. This book offered an interesting view of the Aztec, as a warfaring society which was propelled by a religous zelous that got out of hand and eventually caused the destabilization of a great empire. While I happen to disagree with certain arguments in this book they are all well justified with valid arguments. This field is constantly changing and is full of writers who don't have the background or the backing for their arguments, this is not one of them. Conrad and Demerest use fresh, compelling, and well thoughtout arguments to make an interesting point. If researching the Inca and Aztec this is a must read to achieve a good view of these two expansionist empires.

The book really gets into the nuts and bolts of the empires, showing you how ideas could give birth to and help expand the two cultures. But it also shows how the same ideas could hinder and even start to destroy the empires later in their existance. Yet it is not hard to read and even delightful at some points. They answer alot of questions I had about the Aztec and Inca, making sure to support everything they say with lots of details. A must of any history library.