author
Robert Anderson Wilson
1812–1872
Best known for vivid, opinionated books on 19th-century Mexico, this American travel writer mixed firsthand observation with sweeping historical argument. His work follows journeys made in the early 1850s and reflects a strong curiosity about religion, politics, and everyday life.
1 Audiobook
About the author
An American author born in 1812 and died in 1872, Robert Anderson Wilson is remembered for nonfiction works about Mexico. Records from library and public-domain catalogues identify him as the author of Mexico and Its Religion, Mexico: Its Peasants and Its Priests, and A New History of the Conquest of Mexico.
His writing blends travel narrative with history. Mexico and Its Religion draws on travels in Mexico during 1851–1854, while his later books continue that interest with forceful interpretations of Mexican society, religion, and the Spanish conquest.
Wilson comes across as a strongly opinionated 19th-century observer, and that energy gives his books much of their character. For modern listeners, his work offers both a window into Mexico as he experienced it and an example of how travelers and historians of his era tried to explain the wider world.