This is a Must read for anyone with even a passing interest in the mayan culture. Still easy to read even though it was written over 150 years ago! Imagine you are one of the first explores to adventure into the the jungles of the Yucatan and vist the ancient cities hidden in the jungle. I wish I had read this book before My trip to the Yucatan, would have made my trip that much more enjoyable! The Catherwood engravings are spectacular!

This is a must read for any one with an interest in the ancient Mayan culture an ruin sites. the other reviewers have summed this book up great, but I just wanted to throw in my two cents.

And real full strength Catherwood illustrations.

Unlike some of the recent re-edited editions of Stevens' and Catherwood's work, this Dover Publications edition Volume One of the two volume "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan presents dense, complex, and revealing insights into a brilliant writer's impressions of travel in nascent Central American countries.

Regarding his charge to enter into diplomatic relations with the governments of these countries, Stephens reports, "I was not able to find one..."

In following Stephens eccentric and sometimes high-handed travels through these unsettled societies, we are by contrast in his ruminations given glimpses of the political and social climate in the United States at that time - a commercially predatory, exuberantly expansionist, segregated society. Despite the biases of his times, Stephens is always adaptable to the ways of his hosts.

Although not great in number, Catherwood's illustrations of the stelae at Copan are truly great. His revealing comments on the difficulty of adapting his Western perception enough to capture the scenes even with the help of his camera lucida - tell us just how unusual the sculptural forms were.

As a team - Stephen's enthusiasm and wry humor and Catherwood's sublime skill and dogged persistence - consistently produced great and discerning works of scientific and historical value.

It should be illegal for anyone to edit or abridge these books.

The photographs in this book work as both documentary on the state of the Maya in Chiapas and as pieces of art. Turok's visions are sensitive and understanding. One gets a sense of both place and people.

I went to school with Tony. He was never without his camera throughout high school. He is able to capture the "moment" through his photographs in this book. He is a truly gifted artist.

A marvelous visual "walk" through contemporary Chiapas. Antonio Turok's sentiments are palpable in his pictures. A 'must-have' book for those interested in modern Mexico and, particularly, Chiapas.

Too often those of us who seek social justice for people who have been traditionally oppressed tend to just reminisce on the past.

However, this book proves that there is a great social movement that ordinary people CAN , RIGHT NOW make a diffrence about

The history of Mexico, like the history of Latin America, is a history of pain, struggle, and exploitation.

Marcos shows us a movement that seeks to right some of the wrong, and leads a movement of the oldest of the old, the oppressed of the oppressed: Indigenous campesinos (farmers) of Southern Mexico. Where pictures of Jesus Christ stand right there alongside of.....Che Guevara.

A people that have been traditionally been treated like dirt, for lack of a better word, now taking an inspirational and highly moving stand and demand an end to exploitation and a better way of life.

Through their charismatic and briliant leader, Marcos, he tells us the story of the people known as Zapatistas and their struggle for dignity.

The dignity of a people no longer willing to tolerate centuries of injustice.

What human being cannot be moved by such extroadinary courage?

How can anyone read el subcommandante and not be moved? How can anyone just look at the plight of these people in Mexico and not feel rage at the injustice?

I have sporadically read and been inspired by the writings of El Sup over the last few years - his poetic brilliance, his lyrical poignancy to strike a blow while planting seeds - and to see the collected works of this remarkable thinker and revolutionary is simply incredible. I encourage anyone who is involved in a struggle, anyone who seeks light in an increasingly dark world, and anyone who believes that a better world is still possible, to get this book. Not a cover to cover read, but an activist manual, a delicious serving brain food and heart food. Again, simply wonderful.

The book has a very different focus on the Zapatista movement
than most others out there. It doesn't look at it from a present
time point of view and what do the Zapatistas mean, what do they
want, how do they work....

It looks simply at the history of the indigenous people of Chiapas
and their relationship with the mexican governement and tries to
make sense and explain why it is that the zapatista rebellion happened in Chiapas.

Very interesting and well written

This book is amazing, definetely one of the best out there. Dont be fooled by its cheap price, its well worth three times that amount if youre an avid chiapas rebel. For those of you looking for your first Chiapas book, this is definetely the one to choose.

The Zapatista revolution has been the subject of many books, articles, and opinions, but this book covers the subject in the most objective and thorough journalistic manner.

You will be hard pressed to find another book written with this level of analysis. The Zapatista rebellion was not an overnight reaction to a single set of economic rules, but is rather the manifestation of centuries of injustices, financial hardships and lack of political efficacy. This book explains the multitude of issues and events leading to the Zapatista rebellion. Dr. Harvey is a scholar who understands the political complexity and communicates this for all to understand.

The book has all the substance and objectivity of a scholarly work by someone who has done research in Chiapas for over a decade, but unfolds with all the suspense of a good novel. It is the definitive account to date on this very important topic and a significant contribution to the debate on indigenous rights.

John Ross provides an amazingly well researched and extensive recent history of chiapas. An encyclopedia to the Post Uprising History of Chiapas.

I met John a few years when he'd just publish "The Annexation of Mexico." To me, this was essential to understand this crazy, amiable gringo who was so interested in Mexico and loved it so much. Now I know. Hats off for John!! Since the Zapatista uprising many lines have been written on Chiapas. Essays, criticisms, pseudo-investigative reports, and many more were produced by Mexican, US, French writers. I dare say that, at least, compared to all non-Mexican recounts of the uprising timeline, Ross' is the best. Plenty of information, witty storytelling, tongue-in- cheek analysis of the corrupt political arena and its US counterpart (accomplices that is). Ross shuts up all potential (cynical) critics of his pro- Zapatista point of view by putting the uprising on a Mexican History perspective. If you want to know more about Chiapas, beyond the mainstream media blackout, this IS the book. You will understand why the antiglobalization protests perhaps have their roots in that Jan. 1, 1994.

This book ties together over 500 years of Mayan history and places the current conflict in its accurate historical and cultural setting. Unlike many of the current videos and some books that have been published on Chiapas and surrounding areas of Mexico since the Zapatista uprising, the author has done the extensive research needed to sort out a very complex conflict. I have traveled much in this area of the world and I immediately recognized the social and political landscape described within these pages. I cannot say this about all the books in the recent spate of Chiapas and Mayan scholarship.

I've followed Bill Weinberg's writing for years and have the highest regard for the veracity and insight of his work...

This book is beautiful. I lived in Chiapas Mexico for a time and this book captures the beauty and reality of the region to life better than any other book I have seen. The text is written by an anthropolgist that has lived in the region for years and really knows the Mayan people. The text is very informative about the parts of ancient Mayan culture that have survived into the present day and is peppered with the writer's own experiences with the Maya making it far from dry reading. It will make you want to visit this amazing region of the world inhabited by the Living Maya.

Mexico Madness: Manifesto For A Disenchanted Generation by Eduardo Garcia Aguilar (a journalist with Agence France-Presse) is a scathing, sober, and meticulous examination of what it means to be Mexican, and what it means to be Latin American. Discussing such hot button political and economic issues as the gathering strength of the Zapatistas, the controversy surrounding NAFTA, and the emotional state of a land and its people, Mexican Madness is a powerful, insightful, candid account, presenting very a series of real problems in a no-holds-barred style of unforgettable writing by a journalist well versed in his craft and knowledgeable about his subject.

I am the author of the "Adventure Guide to the Yucatan," a guidebook to the ruins and sites of Mexico's fascinating peninsula. I have been a fan of Richard Perry and his wife's writing since reading the "Maya Missions" book they did on the many ruined colonial missions in the Yucatan. This title is equally worthwhile with vivid descriptions of history and much detail on the colonial remnants of the Spanish church, in seldom-visited Chiapas. And their pen and ink drawings are evocative of the romance and tragedy of the conquest. A great book to make your Chiapas visit even better.