The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (Plume) [Paperback]

Kirkpatrick Sale (Author)

Book Description

Series: Plume | Publication Date: September 26, 1991

Dispels the myths surrounding the journey of Christopher Columbus, with new translations of historical documents that reveal the European motivations for exploration. Reprint. NYT. K.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This demythologizing biographical adventure credits Columbus with the birth of American slavery and Euro-colonialism, and examines how peaceful Native Americans saw their societies and environments plundered by the whites' encroachments. Sale's "wide-angled history represents a major rethinking of the relationship between Europe and America," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What distinguishes this book from numerous others (some 150) published on Columbus in this century is Sale's attempt to separate the man from the legend. He returns to the original sources to take stock of the "historical Columbus" and then traces the growth of the "heroic Columbus." Overall, his portrait of Columbus is not flattering. A rootless man who never fully understood the enormity of his discovery, Columbus spent his declining years making unreasonable demands of his sovereigns for his heirs. Sale reminds us that part of the Columbian legacy was environmental despoliation and destruction of native cultures. Most fascinating is his tracing of the Columbus legend from its origins in the 16th century to the present. The story of his transformation from a simple sea captain to a tragic hero is an engaging one, well told and copiously documented here. In the flood of new Columbus scholarship, this certainly merits a place on all libraries' shelves. BOMC and Quality Paperback Book Club alternates.
- Brian E. Coutts, Western Ken tucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 26, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452266696
• ISBN-13: 978-0452266698
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Columbus, Christopher

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing & fascinating, January 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (Plume) (Paperback)

A must-read for the student of Columbus and the conquest of the New World that tells the story of the Great Discoverer as it has never been told before. Be prepared, for it shows Columbus as the product of a sickly and dispirited Europe convinced of the impending end of the world. It reveals him to be a rootless and lonely man who had difficulty getting along with his fellow Europeans and had little or no understanding of the lands he discovered and later governed. The book also dispells many enduring myths, such as how Queen Isabella supposedly pawned her jewels to finance his voyage, tales of mutinous sailors who believed the world was flat, and how Columbus supposedly died in obscure poverty. Read this book & you'll soon discover why there was such a backlash against the 500th aniversary celebration in 1992. There is a fascinating section that deals with the holocaust inflicted against the Indians, with stories and recollections of unbelieveable cruelty and astonishing horrors committed by the Spanish, including Columbus himself. Later chapters deal with his enduring legacy. Included is a look at the pros and cons of the Noble Savage-as environmentalist controversy. Well-written, engaging, and superbly researched. In my estimation, this is THE book on Columbus!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-Provoking, Readable, Ideologically Motivated, May 8, 1998

By 

Christopher Weaver "weaverc" (Wayne, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (Plume) (Paperback)

Unquestionably a book with a left-wing political bias, but what a fascinating read! Sale tries to imagine the mindset of Columbus's contemporaries in order to explain their bewilderment and hostility when faced with the New World. I found his discussion of Europeans' attitudes toward wilderness and the connection to Biblical traditions absolutely fascinating. The title "Conquest of Paradise" isn't just a catchy and apocolyptic phrase. It refers to the Europeans' sense that they had fallen from paradise and in the process fallen from nature and what the consequences were of these beliefs when they made contact with the Americas. The later chapters on how history reshaped our image of Columbus are far less interesting. Sale has been criticized for his political bias and particularly for his ideas on ecology--many of which figure largely in this book. Being neither a historian nor an ecologist, I can't comment on them, but this book is definitely worth a read regardless.

22 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An inevitable book about an inevitable shame, September 14, 2000

By 

Anon Imus - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (Plume) (Paperback)

This is a well written and thought provoking book. I read it awhile back (1992) and really enjoyed it. I recommend it highly. However, I would like to share a few thoughts on the topic and approach of the book. In retrospect, it hardly seems fair to blame Columbus and the Europeans. I feel if we must blame something we should blame Human Nature instead.

Sale makes a strong case that the European discovery of distant yet habitable lands across the Atlantic was a huge tragedy for all involved, especially to the Native Americans - the conquered. Granted there was great violence and horror unleashed by this world shaking event, but, I would ask - "How else could this have happened?". The tragedy was inevitable. At anytime during Western history, if such an encounter were to take place, I think it is reasonable to assume, human nature being what it is, that the same tragic results would have occurred. We cannot pretend that Europeans explorers of ANY generation, save our own, would have taken with them a 20th century cultural sensitivity (a commodity that Sale apparently has in great quantity) or anthropological curiosity.

Furthermore, we shouldn't be lulled into believing that because the Native Americans were not as efficient killers as where the Europeans, that they somehow lived in an idyllic peace. Human nature being what it is, we see the same kind of religious fanaticism, the same proto-nationalism, and desperate warfare, egocentric monarchs and power-drunk clerics that mark European history. The Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, Chibcha and Arowat peoples believed THEIR gods to be universal, and THEIR way of life was ordained by heaven. The Incas and Aztecs conquered vast numbers of materially inferior peoples and brought them the "truth" of their religion as well as the benefits of their civilization, ie. trade and protection. Much the same way the Spaniards, Portugues, and French will do in post-Conquest Latin America.

I think that Columbus, for all his flaws and failings is nonetheless heroic simply for having the determination to arrive. If he didn't do it, someone else would have - and the glory and blame would have rested with that person. The conquest of paradise was a shame, but it was an inevitable one - sooner or later someone would have done it. I remember on Columbus Day 1992 going down to see the statue of Columbus in front of Union Station in Washington, DC - only to find "the discoverer" drenched in blood red paint. "what a shame"

For those who are interested in the topic, I highy recommend John Hemming's Conquest of the Incas - An equally fascinating book but one that has the advantage of being even-handed, open-minded and fair.