About

EDUCATION

Matthew Restall was born in London, England, in 1964. He grew up in Madrid, Caracas, and Tokyo, but was schooled in England, primarily at Wellington College, before going on to receive a BA degree in Modern History from Oxford University in 1986. He earned a PhD in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1992, and has since held teaching positions at various universities in the United States.

PUBLICATIONS

Restall has published twenty-two books (thirty-eight, counting revised and translated editions) and almost one hundred essays and articles since 1995. His books have been published in seven languages. His best-known books are Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (2003 and 2021) and When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History (2018). Most of his work is on three topics in Latin American History (the Spanish Conquest era, Maya history, and the African diaspora), but he also writes on the history of popular music.

His latest book is the co-authored The Maya and the Friar (2023). Earlier books include Blue Moves (2020), The Black Middle (2009), Maya Conquistador (1998), and The Maya World (1997); as well as the co-authored books Return to Ixil (2019), The Conquistadors (2012), and Invading Guatemala (2007). With Amara Solari he co-authored The Maya (2020) and The Maya Apocalypse and its Western Roots (2021). His textbooks with Kris Lane include Latin America in Colonial Times (2018).

ACCOLADES & POSITIONS

Restall is a member of the New Philology school of Colonial Mexican History, and a founder of a related school, the New Conquest History. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (three times), the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the John Carter Brown Library (twice), the Library of Congress, and the Capitol Historical Society (twice). He was a Member of the Board of Governors of the John Carter Brown Library (2014-23), President of the American Society for Ethnohistory (2017-18), and Greenleaf Distinguished Professor of Latin American Studies at Tulane University (2020). He is a former editor of Ethnohistory journal (2007-16) and of the Hispanic American Historical Review (2017-22). He is editor of book series for Cambridge and Penn State university presses. 

AWARDS

  • Richard Greenleaf Distinguished Chair in Latin American Studies, Tulane University, 2020
  • When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History winner of the Conference on Latin American History Howard F. Cline Memorial Prize for Best Book on Indigenous History in 2018-19
  • When Montezuma Met Cortés Hudson News National Book of the Month (August 2018)
  • President, American Society for Ethnohistory, 2017-18
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, 2023-24, 2001-02, and 1997-98
  • Kislak Fellowship, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, 2017
  • Capitol Fellowship, US Capitol Historical Society, 2017
  • Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, School for Advanced Study, University of London, 2017-18
  • Membership (Fellowship), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2013-14
  • Saunders Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, 2013-14
  • The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan winner of the Conference on Latin American History Prize for Best Book on Mexican History in 2009
  • Faculty Scholar Award for Outstanding Achievement, Penn State, 2007
  • John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2003-04
  • Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest one of The Economist twelve Best History Books of 2003

UPCOMING

Restall is currently working on two books in the history of popular music and one on Columbus (listed below), as well as a history of early Belize and another on the history of the Atlantic world. 

  • Ghosts: Journeys to Post-Pop, will be published by Sonicbond UK, in August 2024.
  • On Elton: An Opinionated Guide will be published by Oxford University Press in March 2025.  
  • A book on Christopher Columbus will be published by W.W. Norton in the autumn of 2025.