Columbus: His Enterprise: Exploding the Myth

Most of us have been taught to think of Christopher Columbus as a single-minded, courageous visionary whose navigational skills led him to "discover" the Americas. In this beautifully written revisionist biography, accessible to people of all ages, Hans Koning gives us the true history of Columbus' life and voyages.

Koning describes how Columbus' consuming drive to send "mountains of god" back to Spain shaped his life, beginning the story with his childhood in Genoa and ending after his return from his fourth and final voyage, an old man in disgrace. He shows how Columbus' "discovery" led to the enrichment of the conquerors through the plunder and murder of the native peoples of the Americas.