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Overview
The 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage has launched a host of attempts to recast the history of the Americas. By reducing the past to a mere pawn in contemporary quarrels and using it to advance "politically correct" goals, many revisionists have profoundly distorted the historical record of Columbus and of the societies that sprung up in the wake of his exploration. For numerous groups the quincentenary is an occasion for rejection of Western culture and for repentance rather than celebration. Robert Royal examines the available facts about Columbus and the Spaniards, their first New World contacts, Christian missionaries, North American Indian tribes, and early British and French settlements. His wide-ranging accounts of the complicated interaction between European individuals and institutions and their Native American counterparts suggest that little of the cultural mixing in the Americas can be characterized in strict black-and-white terms. Noting that anti-myths have largely replaced former idealizations of the great explorer, he warns that knowledge of other peoples in other ages requires effort and sympathetic understanding. The future depends on a truthful reading of the past unmuddied by facile romanticism of any stripe.Editorials
Library Journal
Royal (Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center) takes issue with the ``politically correct'' image of rapacious Europeans coming into contact with idyllic Native Americans living at peace with their environment. He systematically rebuts some of the harsher charges aimed at Columbus, the role of Christian missionaries, and the values of Western civilization in general. While he does not condone the evils that occurred, the author vigorously argues against characterizing complex events in black-and-white terms and distorting the past to further a present political agenda. His work is a good choice for those libraries seeking a conservative view of a controversial issue. Royal would likely place Huyghe among those who ``preemptively'' slight Columbus by affirming earlier discoverers who ``left few signs and almost no written records.'' Huyghe's work, a rehash of what evidence there is of pre-Columbian discovery, includes a good chapter on the arrival of the ancestors of present-day Native Americans. The book's value is diminished by the author's advocacy, along with such proven claims as early settlement by Norsemen, of claims that are either insubstantial (e.g., Japanese, Irish) or outright dubious (e.g., Roman, Chinese). Not recommended.-- William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Lib.Book Details
Published
May 30, 1992
Publisher
Washington, DC : Ethics and Public Policy Center, c1992.
Pages
203
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780896331747