Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

In 1992 we mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World. But for most of us, this pivotal figure remains as distant and mysterious as the New World must have seemed to him. What sort of man was Columbus? Was he a zealous crusader or a mystic seer, as various legends have it, or an embodiment of bourgeois capitalism, as new interpretations claim? In this concise, authoritative biography, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto provides us with a striking view of the first European to explore America, going beyond popular misconception to reveal the real individual behind the romantic fictions.
The Columbus that emerges here may differ from the one described in text books and speculative fantasies, but Fernandez-Armesto's Columbus derives from thorough research into verifiable sources. Fernandez-Armesto paints a new picture of an ambitious, socially awkward parvenu, an autodidact who was intellectually aggressive but easily cowed, an embittered escapee from distressing realities, an adventurer inhibited by fear of failure. The author carefully places Columbus in the context of his society, describing in detail both the explorer's Genoese roots and the culture of his adopted Castillian home. We gain insight into the workings of Ferdinand and Isabella's royal court, as we watch him struggle to attain patronage for his ambitious travel plans; we learn about the role of contemporary cartography in the formation of Columbus's vision of the world through an analysis of marginal notes in his library. And of course we accompany him on his four trips to the New World, watching his reactions to these newly discovered lands and people, following his unsuccessful career as a colonial administrator in Hispaniola, and charting his growing religious obsessions. Fernandez-Armesto assesses the preservation and transcription of Columbus's writings through the work of the 16th century Spaniard Bartolome de Las Casas, and sets the voyages within the context of the ongoing discovery of North and South America.
Complete with eight pages of illustrations and a chronology of Columbus's life and work, this biography provides a compact and up-to-date guide to the explorer and his voyages. Written by an acknowledged authority on the legendary explorer, this book will be a standard for people wanting to separate the facts from the fantasy.

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

YA-- A well-documented, scholarly, and concise biography. Fernandez cuts through all the legends and speculations that have evolved about Columbus to the unadorned facts about this elusive man within the context of his 15th-century world. He reconstructs the explorer through a study of his character using the navigator's own words as a basis for the narrative. Readers will admire his development of geographical ideas, marvel in the description of his voyages, and sympathize with his disastrous career as an administrator. Excellent illustrations, annotated maps, notes, and a chronology provide difficult-to-find historical documentation. This challenging book would be well used by students in gifted or advanced placement cources in European or American history, world history, or anthropology.-- Dolores M. Steinhauer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

An Oxford scholar offers a revisionist assessment of Christopher Columbus. The author rejects the popular cult of Columbus that advances the theory that the celebrated explorer was a mystic visionary well ahead of his time. Rather, Fernandez-Armesto painstakingly establishes the historical context within which his fascinating subject lived and operated. What emerges is a portrait of an opportunist thoroughly grounded in the knowledge and realities of the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Timed to coincide with the fifth centenary of the discovery of America, the publication of this brief and eminently readable biography will elicit a fair amount of interest and attention. ~--Margaret Flanagan

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

About the Author:
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, and is the author of The Spanish Armada.