Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem How Religion Drove the Voyages that Led to America

by Delaney, Carol

• ISBN13: 9781439102374
• ISBN10: 1439102376
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-17
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Now in paperback from scholar Carol Delaney: "a welcome reappraisal of Columbus and his legacy" ( Kirkus Reviews).The dominant understanding of Christopher Columbus holds him responsible for almost everything that went wrong in the New World. Here, finally, is a book that will radically change our interpretation of the man and his mission. Carol Delaney claims that the true motivation for Columbus's voyages is very different from what is commonly accepted. Rather than an avaricious glory hunter, Delaney reveals Columbus as a man of deep passion, patience, and religious conviction: He believed that he was destined to play a decisive role in the retaking of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire. Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem recounts the drama of the four voyages, bringing the trials of ocean navigation vividly to life and showing Columbus for the master navigator that he was. Putting Columbus back into the context of his times, rather than viewing him through the prism of present-day perspectives on colonial conquests, Delaney shows him to have been neither a greedy imperialist nor a quixotic adventurer, as he has lately been depicted, but a man driven by an abiding religious passion.

Author Biography

Carol Delaney received an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of Boston University. She is now an emerita professor, Stanford University, and a research scholar at Brown University.

Table of Contents

Prologue	p. vii
Introduction: The Passions of Columbus	p. ix
Omens of the Apocalypse	p. 1
Learning the "Secrets of the World"	p. 19
The Plan Begins to Take Shape	p. 43
Vision Becomes Reality	p. 68
Days of Wonder	p. 91
Triumph and Disaster	p. 117
Unruly Passions: The Colonies	p. 144
Paradise Found and Lost	p. 166
Privileges and Prophecies: Columbus's Stake in the Future	p. 186
Marooned	p. 202
The Final Passion: Disillusion and Death	p. 224
Afterwards: Columbus, Apocalyptic, and Jerusalem	p. 236
Acknowledgments	p. 245
Appendix: What Happened to the Major Players	p. 247
Notes	p. 253
Bibliography	p. 292
Index	p. 305
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