He knew nothing of celestial navigation or of the existence of the Pacific Ocean. He was a self-promoting and ambitious entrepreneur. His maps were a hybrid of fantasy and delusion. When he did make land, he enslaved the populace he found, encouraged genocide, and polluted relations between peoples. He ended his career in near lunacy.
But Columbus had one asset that made all the difference, an inborn sense of the sea, of wind and weather, and of selecting the optimal course to get from A to B. Laurence Bergreen's energetic and bracing book gives the whole Columbus and most importantly, the whole of his career, not just the highlight of 1492. Columbus undertook three more voyages between 1494 and 1504, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. By their conclusion, Columbus was broken in body and spirit, a hero undone by the tragic flaw of pride. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, this book shows how the subsequent voyages illustrate the costs - political, moral, and economic.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. He knew little of celestial navigation and nothing of the Pacific Ocean. He went looking for China and thought he found India. He was a self-promoting opportunist who made his great discovery without ever acknowledging it for what it was. Yet for all his flaws, Christopher Columbus was a masterful seaman who, for better or worse, plotted a new course for the world's future. In the first full biography of Columbus in over sixty years, prizewinning author Laurence Bergreen takes the full measure of the explorer's controversial career, spinning an epic tale to match the events of an epic life. 'Laurence Bergreen's Columbus was brilliant, audacious, volatile, paranoid, and ruthless . . . A surprising and revealing portrait.' The New York Times Book Review 'A profoundly private portrait of the most complex, compelling, and controversial creature ever to board a boat. This scrupulously researched, unbiased account of four death-defying journey to the New World reveals the Admiral's paradoxical personality.' USA Today 'Richly illustrated and enhanced with maps that are as legible as they are relevant, Columbus- The Four Voyages is complex in its themes, intriguing in its substance, and sparkling with surprises.' The Washington Times Columbus undertook three voyages between 1494 and 1504, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. This book shows how the subsequent voyages illustrate the costs - political, moral, and economic. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780143122104
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