This major new history of the ancient Maya will be the second book in Princeton University Press and Editorial Planeta’s bilingual publishing program.
Princeton University Press (PUP) and Editorial Planeta are thrilled to announce the next book in our bilingual publishing program. The Ancient Maya: A New History by David Stuart will be released in simultaneous English and Spanish language hardcover and ebook editions in January 2026. PUP retains world rights, including audio, granting Planeta world Spanish rights in all formats. Robust English and Spanish language global marketing and publicity is planned by both publishers.
Stuart’s book will be the second title in this new PUP-Planeta partnership, which launched in 2024 with the publication of Puerto Rico: A National History / Puerto Rico: Historia de una nación by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo. PUP’s Director of Intellectual Property Inés ter Horst, who heads the collaboration on Princeton’s end, notes, “Following the incredible success of Puerto Rico we are thrilled to continue our Planeta partnership with David Stuart’s The Ancient Maya. Stuart’s engaging and widely accessible treatment of this ancient narrative promises to become a foundational history of one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas, and we are honored to add this title to our PUP-Planeta repertoire.”
Cristóbal Pera, VP and Publisher of Planeta US adds, “We couldn't imagine a better book for our second collaboration with PUP. David Stuart’s ambitious history will keep expanding the scope of our editorial partnership to a wider audience. Reaching readers in Spanish and English with such amazing books alongside Princeton UP is a point of pride for Planeta.”
The ancient Maya built one of the greatest civilizations of the Americas, yet much remains for modern readers to learn about this incredible history. In The Ancient Maya: A New History, world renowned archaeologist David Stuart shares the engrossing story of early Maya culture and society as it’s never been told. Drawing on the latest archaeology combined with written records, this major new history will illuminate a fresh understanding of how the Maya rose rapidly in first millennium BCE, and how their political culture “collapsed” ca. 900 CE, when numerous cities and royal courts were abandoned.
Stuart shows that Maya civilization did not simply “rise” and “fall” in a bell-curve of history, but was instead broken into many kingdoms and city-states, punctuated by numerous rises and falls. Throughout, Stuart brings to life a history of the key players of the Classic period civilization: members of a tightly bound network of royal families and nobility who ruled over centuries, yet eventually succumbed to widespread internal warfare, population pressures, and environmental change. The result is a portrait of ever-changing cities and communities, emerging and fading, yet whose ultimate fates were bound together.
About the Author
David Stuart is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University and taught at Harvard University before arriving at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004, where he now teaches in the Department of Art and Art History. His research focuses on the art, archaeology and epigraphy of ancient Maya civilization, but his interests in the traditional cultures of Mesoamerica range far into other times and regions. For the past four decades Stuart’s research has driven the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing, and his initial breakthroughs led to a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984, at the age of 18 (he remains the youngest ever MacArthur recipient). In 2012 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a UNESCO Lifetime Achievement Award. His books include Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya; The Order of Days: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Maya; King and Cosmos: A New Interpretation of the Aztec Calendar Stone; and Spearthrower Owl: A Teotihuacan Ruler in Maya History.