1492 and all that
Subtitle: political manipulations of history
By: Robert Royal.
Publisher: Ethics and Public Policy Center
Published: 1992
Place of publication: Washington, DC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
Subjects: Columbus, Christopher; Indians -- First contact with Europeans; Indians -- First contact with Europeans -- Historiography; Pluralism (Social sciences) -- America; Pluralism (Social sciences) -- America -- Historiography; America -- Discovery and exploration -- Spanish; America -- Discovery and exploration -- Spanish -- Historiography
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-192) and index.