"The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus" by Matthew Restall

Описание: How much do we really know about Christopher Columbus? And how do we separate the facts from the myths that surround him? Stay tuned for some answers. -- Hi, I’m Dan Skinner and this is “Some Books Considered.” – Matthew Restall is a Professor of History and Anthropology, and director of Latin American studies at Penn State University. His previous books include “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest” and “When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History,” among others. He joins us to discuss “The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus.”

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Here is a link to purchase "The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus" by Matthew Restall - https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Lives-Chr...

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Book Description (From Amazon Listing)
"The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus" by Matthew Restall

A gifted historian presents a definitive book on Columbus―his life, his legacies, and the controversies that outlived him.

Christopher Columbus was born Cristoforo Colombo, in the autumn of 1451 in the Mediterranean port city of Genoa, and he died in the Spanish city of Valladolid in May 1506, as don Cristóbal Colón. More than five centuries later, we are still arguing over his life and its significance. Millions if not billions of people have learned his name. Most have some sense of what he did, that it was momentous, a great achievement, an act of primacy. But was his achievement “great” because he “discovered America” and thus made possible the hemisphere’s “great” nations? Or was it an apocalyptic catastrophe for tens of millions of Indigenous and African peoples?

In The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus, acclaimed historian Matthew Restall, perhaps the leading scholar of the Spanish Empire, presents a new, authoritative biography of Columbus, while at the same time tracing his many afterlives down into our own time. He explores the mysteries, many of them manufactured, that color our understanding of Columbus even in the twenty-first century―mysteries surrounding Columbus’s name, nationality, place of birth, ancestry, education, religion, intellectual vision, moral fiber, sexual proclivities, and current resting place. He shows how Columbus became an iconic American hero in the nineteenth century, and how a parallel hero emerged in the form of the Italian American Columbus.

Restall takes us beyond polemic, sifting through the evidence across nations, languages, and five centuries to explore the many questions that make up what he calls “Columbiana.” He demonstrates that, far from a uniquely talented individual, Columbus was typical of the Iberian and northern Italian men of his day―a merchant mariner who became an explorer, slave-trader, and conquistador-settler. And Restall challenges the notion, deeply held to this day, that Columbus can be credited or blamed for all that happened after 1492.

Whatever one’s views of Columbus, Restall’s book is the necessary, definitive account. It dispels the myths and gives us Columbus as he was. It shows how he has been distorted in the centuries since his death―and how we might come to understand him, and his legacies, anew.

49 illustrations

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Chapters for "The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus" by Matthew Restall

00:00 Introduction to "The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus"
00:42 Why Restall Wanted to Write a Book about Christopher Columbus
05:47 Multiple Places Claim Columbus Was Born There
11:51 How Myths Fill the Gaps in the History of Christopher Columbus
16:25 Columbus Controversy: How Should View Columbus Today?
19:55 Closing Comments and Two More Books You Might Find Interesting

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Hi! I'm Dan Skinner. Thanks for watching this edition of "Some Books Considered."

I requested and was provided with a copy of the book, but this video is not sponsored.

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