1. Introduction -- Geographic setting -- Languages and peoples -- Periods -- 2. Early hunters -- 3. The Archaic period -- The Desert Culture in North America -- Origins of Mexican cultivated plants -- Importance of maize -- Other cultigens -- Caves and rockshelters of northeastern Mexico -- Santa Marta rockshelter -- The Tehuacan Valley -- The other Archaic sites -- The Archaic period and the origins of settled life -- 4. The Preclassic period : early villagers -- The early Preclassic in Chiapas -- Early Preclassic villagers in Oaxaca -- The site of Tlatilco -- Established villages of the middle Preclassic -- Late Preclassic cultures of the central highlands -- The Mezcala puzzle -- The shaft-tomb art of western Mexico and the Teuchitlan Tradition -- 5. The Preclassic period : early civilizations -- Background of civilized life -- The Olmec civilization -- The San Lorenzo Olmecs -- El Manatí -- The Olmecs of La Venta -- Chiapa de Corzo: a La Venta outlier? -- Tres Zapotes and the Long Count calendar -- The Olmecs beyond the heartland -- Early Zapotec civilization -- Izapan civilization -- La Mojarra and the Isthmian script -- 6. The Classic period -- Rise of the great civilizations -- The urban civilization of Teotihuacan -- The Great Pyramid of Cholula -- Cerro de las Mesas -- Classic Monte Albán and Classic Veracruz civilization -- The Classic downfall.

7. The Epiclassic period -- The Maya connection : Cacaxtla and Xochicalco -- Cholula -- Cantona -- El Tajín -- Central Veracruz -- Valley of Oaxaca -- Northwestern Mexico -- The end of the Epiclassic -- 8. The Post-Classic period : the Toltec state -- A time of troubles -- The Chichimeca of northern Mexico -- Tula and the Toltecs -- The Toltec annals -- Archaeological Tula -- Tula and Chich'en Itza -- 9. The Post-Classic period : rival states -- Late Zapotec culture at Mitla -- The Mixtecs -- The Huastec -- The Tarascan kingdom -- Casas Grandes and the northern trade route -- The rise of the Aztec state -- The consolidation of Aztec power -- 10. The Aztecs in 1519 -- The island city -- Aztec society -- The long-distance merchants -- Becoming an Aztec -- Marriage -- The Triple Alliance and the Empire -- The emperor and the palace -- Food and agriculture -- War and human sacrifice -- Aztec religion -- Aztec art and architecture -- Aztec thought and literature -- Epilogue -- The Spanish Conquest -- New Spain and the Colonial world -- The "ladinoization" of Mexico -- Aftermath -- Visiting Mexico -- Chronological table -- Reigning monarchs of the Aztec state.