Οι Ίνκας

by Alfred Métraux, Ελένη Φαμελιάδου-Νάκου (Translator), Γιώργος Καραμπελιάς (Editor)

A history of the Incas

Genres: History, Nonfiction

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Alfred Métraux (Lausanne, 5 November 1902 – 12 April 1963, Paris) was a Swiss and Argentine anthropologist, ethnologist and human rights leader.

Reviews

[Manuel-Antonio Monteagudo Gauvrit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, in-depth and revealing read, which made me discover several aspects of Incan history and society I didn't know about.

Sadly, the last chapter, regarding the "descendants of the Incas", aged very poorly, portraying native peruvians in a very essentialists way, and devolving in an almost delirious portrayal of the future of Peru and its people.

[Arlomisty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written History book of the Incas... I knew a little of their culture and history, but this book gave a bigger picture of who they really were, and why they disappeared from history. I would recommend this book.

[Florin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommandée à tous ceux qui souhaitent s'initier à la civilisations des Incas.

Un ouvrage tout aussi bien écrit que synthétisé.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thus is a very nice short book about the history and culture of the Incan civilization. It starts by describing the first organised societies in the west side of South America during the pre Columbian times and sets the setting for the rise of the Incas and their conquest by the Spanish. It is quite dense and inludes mixed historical facts with folclore stories and practices. Each chapter includes one aspect of the Incan civilization, e.g. infrastructures, politics, architecture, religion. The most interesting part is the fact that Alfred Métraux is always giving his opinion from a political and social point of view. He poses and then challenges theories that account there Incan political system to be an early socialist model.

Bottom line: it is a very nice introductory book to get your first glimpse on the Incan civilization. However it was written in the seventies and some of the facts included in the book may have been revisited by later researchers.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A too short of a take on the immense history of the Incas. This feels like it was written as cliff notes to the Inca empire. Wanna know who preceded the Incas, what happened when the Spanish conquistadores arrived, and the fall out of it all but don't have time to read a real history - here's 200 pages of overview. For that, the book is ok but so much is glossed over the in the telling for this to be a real "history" of the Incas.