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Brantz Mayer
1809–1879
A Baltimore writer, diplomat, and historian, he turned firsthand experience in Mexico into books that helped shape 19th-century American readers' understanding of the country and its past. His work ranges from travel and politics to careful studies of colonial history and Indigenous civilizations.
6 Audiobooks
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 1 of 2
by Brantz Mayer
Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
by Theodore Canot, Brantz Mayer
Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2
by Brantz Mayer
History of the War Between Mexico and the United States, with a Preliminary View of its Origin, Volume 1
by Brantz Mayer
Calvert and Penn
by Brantz Mayer
Memoir of Jared Sparks, LL.D.
by Brantz Mayer
About the author
Born in Baltimore in 1809, Brantz Mayer studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1829, but he built a wider literary and public career than a legal one. He served as secretary of legation to the United States mission in Mexico from 1841 to 1844, an experience that gave him material for some of his best-known writing.
Mayer wrote about Mexico with the eye of a traveler, observer, and historian. His books include Mexico as It Was and as It Is and Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, and he also wrote on early American history and Indigenous cultures. He was active in learned circles in Baltimore as well, helping connect scholarship, public life, and publishing.
He died in Baltimore in 1879. Today he is remembered as one of the 19th century's energetic interpreters of Mexico and the Americas, blending diplomacy, travel writing, and historical research in a way that still makes his work interesting to readers of the period.