Christopher Columbus

by Ernle Bradford

Book Overview

The "outstanding" biography of the Italian navigator and explorer from the bestselling author of The Great Siege (The New York Times). Christopher Columbus, credited with discovering America in 1492,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670221562
• ISBN13: 9780670221561
• Release Date: October 1973
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Columbus We Didn't Learn About in School

I don't think of myself as much different from most people who grew up in the United States, going through grade school with a modest understanding of our nation's history. From Columbus up until the present day, we were presented with an abbreviated history highlighted with sidebars that would occasionally delve deeper into the subject matter. My knowledge of Christopher Columbus was basically limited to the fact that he was Italian, had gone to Spain and convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to finance his voyage to Asia, which he felt he could reach by heading west, and that he had made four voyages of discovery. After listening to this fascinating book-on-tape by Ernle Bradford, I learned not only about how tough it was...years of hard work...just to get Ferdinand and Isabella's support, but about the intrigue and drama that resulted in the later voyages. The experiences of these four distinctly different trips, including the dangers and life-threatening challenges that make the work of today's thrill-seekers pale in comparison, are vividly drawn in an engrossing story that makes me feel an admiration for this man I could not have expected. Let the judgement of today's political scientists be what it may regarding the destruction of the indigenous people and the resulting chaos that became the New World. For me, "Christopher Columbus" is an engrossing story of a man who braved incredible dangers to rally support for his mission and his religion, managed to nurture relationships of both royalty and ordinary seamen in his efforts to achieve success, faced mutinous challenges by greedy counterparts, and sadly, never lived to know the scope of his discovery.