• for: Washington Irving, book - the History of New York, book - A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus

• comment

  • Irving was a American writer who wrote fiction for the intent of stoking nationalism. He bent the truth in many ways.
  • Among his most famous and impactful historical lies that Irving fabricated in his book on Columbus was that prior to Columbus, the majority of educated people thought the earth was flat. In fact, most educated people believed the earth to be round during the time of Columbus.

• interesting fact: knickerbocker

  • The term knickerbocker originated in the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker that Irving chose for his book "A History of New York"

Hayton, Darin. “Washington Irving’s Columbus and the Flat Earth.” History of Science blog. Darin Hayton, December 2, 2014. https://dhayton.haverford.edu/blog/2014/12/02/washington-irvings-columbus-and-the-flat-earth/.

the author cites examples of modern references including: - Lawrence Krauss (cosmologist) # - President Barak Obama # - Chris Impey, astronomer #, #

Source of the Columbus/Flat Earth portion of the bunk theory.

Were there uninformed people of his time who didn't think the world was round?

The myth about the flat world was primarily an invention of Washington Irving. Good to see him tangentially deflating this myth here.

How is it that Columbus jumps so quickly to subjugation upon meeting new peoples?

99% and 1% theme exists here as a theme years before it became mainstream.

The Greeks had accurate measurements of the world, but Columbus' was off significantly.. He likely created a post hoc reasoning for this.

Alfred W. Crosby.'s The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (1972) was published a few years before Zinn's work, so the effects of disease are likely under reported here.

Excuse of progress for the annihilation of indigenous societies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzQzdWZtpm0&t=7s

From 1492 to 1504, Christopher Columbus made four voyages to the Americas and Spanish colonizing of what is now South America extended from 1494 to the 1600s. By "gradually," however, Shelley mody likely means that the Americas could have been "discovered" without imperial violence if Europeans had observed and valued domestic affections over military adventure.