author
Brantz Mayer
1809–1879
A Baltimore writer and historian, he turned travel, diplomacy, and deep archival curiosity into vivid books about Mexico and Maryland. His work helped preserve regional history while opening a window onto nineteenth-century American ideas about the wider world.
6 Audiobooks
Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
by Theodore Canot, Brantz Mayer
Calvert and Penn Or the Growth of Civil and Religious Liberty in America, as Disclosed in the Planting of Maryland and Pennsylvania
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
Memoir of Jared Sparks, LL.D.
by Brantz Mayer
About the author
Born in Baltimore in 1809, Brantz Mayer was a lawyer, writer, and historian whose career ranged across journalism, public service, and historical research. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and later served as secretary of the United States legation to Mexico in the early 1840s. That experience shaped some of his best-known books, including Mexico as It Was and as It Is and Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican.
Mayer was also an important figure in the cultural life of Maryland. In 1844, he helped found the Maryland Historical Society, and he remained closely involved in preserving documents, stories, and public memory connected with the state. Archival records from the University of Maryland describe him as a prominent nineteenth-century Baltimore citizen whose papers include diaries, notes, and research materials tied to his historical writing.
For readers today, Mayer is interesting not only for the subjects he chose, but for the way he worked: part traveler, part observer, part collector of the past. His books reflect a nineteenth-century American appetite for history, politics, and place, and they still offer a revealing glimpse into how his era understood Mexico, Maryland, and the making of national memory.