THE CONQUEST OF PARADISE: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy

by Kirkpatrick Sale ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1990

As the next wave of Columbiana and related scholarship begins to swell in time for the anniversary extravaganza two years hence, Sale, whose previous works have ranged from a study of student activism (SDS, 1973) to an evaluation of ecological politics and the Greens (Dwellers in the Land, 1985), turns his eclectic radical eye to the voyages of Columbus and the centuries of colonialism that began with them. Drawing on Johan Huizinga and Fernand Braudel to impart the larger European context--decadent, inbred societies ravaged by disease and constant warfare and cast adrift from their medieval moorings by a heady mixture of nationalism, materialism, and humanism--Sale perceives the excursion of 1492 as both a fortuitous event and a necessity, it revitalized the economies of Aragon and Castile, as gold and riches came back to Ferdinand and Isabella; other nations in Europe found similar bounties in subsequent centuries. The details of Columbus' wholehearted participation in the exploitation process emerge here from the historical record; including his enslaving of friendly and hostile natives alike in his capacity of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Governnor of the first settlements. However, his increasing mental instability and ineffectual leadership quickly sidelined him, and he died in obscurity in 1506 In tracing the explorer's legacy, Sale gives the first English colony at Jamestown special scrutiny, arguing that it in effect represented ""the second successful invasion of America""; and he shows how, more recently, as plant and animal species disappear and water, land, and natives are abused, the frenzy of conquest continues in the Americas, with the forays of that eccentric wanderer who led the way ever more widely celebrated by scholars and patriots. Provocative, ambitious, and well-researched: a timely argument, unswerving in its mission to debunk myths and probe the implications of Columbus' ""discovery.

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION