Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. ix, 203 pages; 24 cm

Summary

1. "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."--Jacket.

Subject

1. Columbus, Christopher
2. Colón, Cristóbal, 1451-1506
3. Colomb, Christophe, approximately 1451-1506
4. Indians > First contact with other peoples
5. Indians > Historiography
6. Cultural pluralism > America
7. Cultural pluralism > America > Historiography
8. Indiens d'Amérique > Premiers contacts avec les Européens
9. Indiens d'Amérique > Historiographie
10. Diversité culturelle > Amérique
11. Diversité culturelle > Amérique > Historiographie
12. Cultural pluralism
13. Cultural pluralism > Historiography
14. Discoveries in geography > Spanish
15. Indians > First contact with other peoples
16. Entdeckung
17. Geschichtsbild
18. Geschichtsklitterung
19. America > Spanish
20. America > Historiography
21. Amérique > Découverte et exploration espagnoles
22. Amérique > Historiographie
23. America
24. Amerika
25. History

Contents

1. 1. Myths and Anti-Myths -- 2. El Almirante -- 3. Vox Clamantis in Deserto? -- 4. Multiculturalism, Europe, and 1492 -- 5. Events and Counter-Events -- 6. Democratic Vistas.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-192) and index.

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain