Recently I've been playing a lot of Age of Empires III; in the game I'm a Spanish conquistador who comes to the New World and tries to colonize it while exploiting my native friends and killing all those other Europeans who try to do the same. In the game, I have named my character Hernan Cortes and am sadly really enjoying my conquest of Mexico. Thanks to my recent video game exploits, I was encouraged to read a little bit about the man whose voyage launched the colonization of America, Cristobal Colon (aka Christopher Columbus among others). This book took an interesting stance on Colon's life. Sale makes Colon out to be an imbecile. Sale spent seven years researching this book and meticulously cites his conclusions. By the end, I was quite convinced of Sale's hypothesis. More or less, Colon has been extremely glorified over the years and myths have been created about him for a number of motives. Sale questions everything from Colon's nationality and religion to his motives and assumptions. This book is intended to be an examination of Colon's life and his legacy. Unfortunately, Sale focuses a good chunk of the book on Colon's legacy; he cites practically all known monuments made to Colon, a bit too much detail for me. However, this is a good book to read if you ever want to talk back to your 3rd grade teacher who taught you that Colon was the bravest, smartest, boldest, most heroic and noble man to have ever lived. I live that opportunity in my head every day.
Completed: March 28, 2007
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