An odd bit of erudition to launch at this particular moment. Strange that it has not been expanded to some length before...

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AMERIGO: A Comedy of Errors in History

An odd bit of erudition to launch at this particular moment. Strange that it has not been expanded to some length before now, for here is a story of real moment to the history of America, slighted, misinterpreted, ignored in our histories. It is the story of Amerigo Vespucci, and how America was named. It is a survey of the sources of information and misinformation, chronologically laid forth as the civilized world discovered them, with a neat fitting facts to their place and showing how a succession of minor accidents resulted in pinning the glory of a continent on a comparatively unimportant explorer. A printer in the Vosges, a provincial geographer, a publisher seizing the psychological moment for issuing a dubious report of 32 pages -- and the trick was done. The pendulum swung away from Columbus in the 16th century; by the 17th century Vespu was labelled a swindler, by the 18th he was accepted as innocent of the fraud.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1941

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