1492 and All That

The 500th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus spurred a host of politically motivated groups and organizations to attempt to recast the history of the Americas. Most of these revisionists use the past as a tool by which to advance "politically correct" goals, particularly in opposition to the US. Through books, lobbying campaigns and protests, they are seeking to turn the anniversary commemoration into an occasion for repentance rather than celebration. Taking aim at several of these distortions, this author examines Columbus and the Spaniards, the Aztecs, the early British and French settlements, and the complicated interactions between the Europeans and indigenous peoples. He rebuts the major revisionist positions on the basis of historical evidence. The book aims to sift the historical and anthropological truths from the ideological and political special pleading related to the Columbus anniversary.