Aztecs & Maya - N. James

This overview of the whole of Middle America from earliest times to today begins by tracing the first development of villages and chiefdoms and the role of the Olmecs in unifying the region. The core of the book is devoted to the gigantic monuments of their successors, including the "City of the Gods" and the pyramids still emerging among the forests of the Maya. The collapse of these societies 1,000 years ago still baffles archaeologists. The story continues to cover the Toltecs and the Aztecs, culminating in the cataclysmaic destruction of the Indian kingdoms and the stubborn but uncertain resurgence of the Middle American tradition today.