Book review – The Incas

The Incas is not really a book to be read cover to cover. It’s probably the best textbook on Incan history for the non-academic reader, providing in-depth coverage of all aspects of Incan culture, society and history. It’s not a history book in the classic narrative sense of trying to cover the events that happened, but rather tries to explain Incan society to us. I read this in the hope of learning about an American civilization, one that had no contact with the Eurasians and therefore developed its own culture and worldview entirely independently. What I learned from this book was very interesting.

The Incas were a vast empire that stretched the length of the Western part of South America, covering everything from desert to coastland to highlands. All this they administered without horses or carriages, travelling everywhere on foot. They had roads for communication, and used knots on ropes to help remember information, for the Incas were also a civilization without writing. For those of us used to studying Eurasian civilizations, where writing and imperial power go hand in hand, this is the example par excellence that writing isn’t necessary for civilization.

The book also teaches us about Incan religion, the Incan world-view, methods of provincial administration, and the system of labour taxation where families had to offer a member to work for the Incan Empire for a period of time. I was especially impressed and intrigued by the sophistication of Incan agriculture and the level of state-management of the economy. But reading about the Incans is also a chance to discover our common humanity in its glory and failure. Here is a society that evolved utterly independent of China, Europe, India and the Middle East, and yet it was clearly patriarchal, religious and hierarchical. In the end, it was an extractive Empire, and reading about forced migrations in particular reminded me of practices in imperial China.

I can’t say I recommend that everyone read The Incas. It’s only for you if you’re interested in history or sociology or anthropology, or the Incas themselves, come to that. But if you do want to learn about the Incan Empire, this is probably the best book for it. It’ll be a useful reference for you. I would also add, that for writers of speculative fiction who want to be inspired by something a little bit out of the ordinary, studying this civilization would be a great way to diversify your ideas a little.