The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account [Paperback]

Bartolomé de de Las Casas (Author), Herma Briffault (Translator), Bill Donovan (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801844304 | ISBN-13: 978-0801844300 | Publication Date: February 1, 1992 | Edition: 1st

Five hundred years after Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the debate over the European impact on Native American civilization has grown more heated than ever. Among the first--and most insistent--voices raised in that debate was that of a Spanish priest, Bartolome de Las Casas, acquaintance of Cortes and Pizarro and shipmate of Velasquez on the voyage to conquer Cuba. In 1552, after forty years of witnessing--and opposing--countless acts of brutality in the new Spanish colonies, Las Casas returned to Seville, where he published a book that caused a storm of controversy that persists to the present day. The Devastation of the Indies is an eyewitness account of the first modern genocide, a story of greed, hypocrisy, and cruelties so grotesque as to rival the worst of our own century. Las Casas writes of men, women, and children burned alive "thirteen at a time in memory of Our Redeemer and his twelve apostles." He describes butcher shops that sold human flesh for dog food ("Give me a quarter of that rascal there, " one customer says, "until I can kill some more of my own"). Slave ship captains navigate "without need of compass or charts, " following instead the trail of floating corpses tossed overboard by the ship before them. Native kings are promised peace, then slaughtered. Whole families hang themselves in despair. Once-fertile islands are turned to desert, the wealth of nations plundered, millions killed outright, whole peoples annihilated. In an introduction, historian Bill M. Donovan provides a brief biography of Las Casas and reviews the controversy his work produced among Europeans, whose indignation--and denials--lasted centuries. But the book itself is short. "Were I t describe all this, " writes Las Casas of the four decades of suffering he witnessed, "no amount of time and paper could encompass this task."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bartolomé de Las Casas's critical account of the impact that the Spaniards had on the new continent has long been recognized as one of the major sources for the study on the interaction between whites and American Indians during the sixteenth century. The present translation of The Devastation of the Indies is based on the 1965 edition and appeared for the first time in 1974. The reprint is now accompanied by a penetrating introduction by Bill M. Donovan... All this makes the introduction to a provocative and stimulating essay, preparing the reader for the actual text by Las Casas.

(Albrecht Classen Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association )

[Does] justice to the heartfelt message of Bartolomé de las Casas.

(British Bulletin of Publications )

The book's sensational effect provides an early example of the power of the press... The topicality of the book is monstrous, has a penetratingly contemporary smell to it. [But] Las Casas is not our contemporary. His report treats of colonialism in its earliest stage; that is, of robbery pure and simple, of unconcealed plundering.

(Hans Magnus Enzensberger )

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

Product Details

• Paperback: 138 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1st edition (February 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801844304
• ISBN-13: 978-0801844300
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great account of the fight for justice in young Mexico, May 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account (Paperback)

This book is a short version of The Conquest of New Spain. In the Brief account, de las Casas explains the violence and injustice in which the natives were being treated by the spanish conquistadores. De las Casas writes this account to show the king in Spain the way the army was trating the indians. It also shows the courage of the clergy to protect the rights of the oppressed. De las Casas became the first bishop of Chiapas, the same area in conflict today in southern Mexico where the Church keeps fighting for justice for the poor.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insightful book, October 13, 2000

By 

Rob Turner (Provo, Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account (Paperback)

Bartolome was a priest in the new world and the book in an attempt to show the abuses that the Spaniards committed against the indians and the damages done in the name of Gad and the King. This book is a historiography, but well written and a quick read. It presents a new facet of the conquest and is a direct contrast to the writings of Cortes.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pivotal Work, June 26, 2010

By 

Scott Schwartz - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account (Paperback)

I work in conjunction with a whole bunch of doctorally trained professionals to help indigent Latino families in East Harlem. Not one of the Clinicians had the slightest idea who De Las Casas was, and yet every one of our clients not only knew of him, but evinced reverent respect for the achievements and writings of this Saintly man. So I went and bought my colleagues ten copies of this book to devastate them out of their complacent ignorance. This book reads like a novel (better!) and you kind of wish it was really fiction, because the truth says so much about the nature of false piety and excused sadism. The translator is to be commended on making this so riveting. What I suppose is so sad is that this is not the tyranny of one dictator, but the perversion of what is a beautiful ideology of love into one of hate, superiority and destruction. Yet and all, the courage of this man, and a very few others, gives hope for the human race. Definitely a great work!