“Strange Lands and Different Peoples” centers on the sixteenth-century history of what is now the nation-state of Guatemala. It consists of 4 main sections followed by a 40-table appendix of statistical data. Parts 1 to 3 provide a chronological overview of Guatemalan history from 1522 to 1550; part 4 reconstructs three centuries of indigenous population history from 1520 to 1812. The volume is a timely and useful state-of-the-field overview. The past two decades have seen a renaissance in research on “colonial Guatemala.” Sources thought lost have been rediscovered (encomienda grant documents and tribute records, the second and third volumes of the capital's cabildo minutes), and unexpected new sources have come to light (the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan, a pictorial Tlaxcalan conquest account). The interdisciplinary team of authors (W. George Lovell, a geographer; Christopher H. Lutz and Wendy Kramer, historians; and William R. Swezey, an archaeologist) do a fine job of...
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