Christopher Columbus

A lesson on contextualizing history.

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist.

Columbus Day is here again -- along with the controversy over its namesake. How have earlier generations understood him?

Writer Tony Horwitz, author of A Voyage Long and Strange (2008), discusses his search for the “real” Christopher Columbus.

A time before “everyone” knew the story of Christopher Columbus, and the role of Washington Irving’s massive biography in creating the heroic Columbus myth.

It's worth remembering that the now-controversial holiday started as a way to empower immigrants and celebrate American diversity.

The self-confidence that kept Columbus going was his undoing.

The unauthorized removal of the monument took place during the racial justice protests of summer 2020.

President Benjamin Harrison promoted the holiday after a mob killed 11 Italian Americans and set off a diplomatic crisis.

It helped erode discrimination but also upheld racial prejudice.

How scientific thought informed colonization and religious conversion during the Age of Discovery.

Last week, the mayor announced that the city’s most prominent statue of Christopher Columbus would be removed “as soon as possible.”

Columbus wasn't unique in his belief that bizarre, monstrous humanoids inhabited the far reaches of the world.

New York's statue debate hits Italian-Americans hard.

Though the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day was celebrated in the early 1990s, the idea took shape many years earlier.

Italian Americans and the commemoration of Columbus.

Two historians shed light on the atrocities of Native American enslavement and genocide.

Acknowledging the truth about colonialism is crucial if we want to comprehend the world around us today.

Patrick Blanchfield tracks the long-standing entanglement of guns and religion in the United States. Part 1 of 2.

Building the Panama Canal.