Christopher Columbus

Philly's Columbus Statue is Out of the Box—So is the Discussion About His Legacy

Historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries talks about controversial statues: one removed in Richmond, and one uncovered in Philadelphia.

How Our Hero Columbus Has Fallen

by Brian Regal

"Humans seem to need to have heroes, but we’re often not sure what to do with them. We want them to embody high ideals, but they rarely do."

Reviving the Conflict Between Columbus and Taíno Chieftain Caonabó Through Historical Fiction

by Andrew Rowen

By resisting the conquest of Columbus, Taíno peoples made the story of conquest their story too. A novelist explains how he worked to recover both sides of the conflict, including the values and worldview of Native and European antagonists, through historical fiction. 

Christopher Columbus And The Replacement-Level Historical Figure

by Patrick Wyman

Rather than debate Columbus's heroism or villainy, take a page from sports analytics: consider him a mediocre player and focus on the broader game being played.

Who's stealing Christopher Columbus letters from libraries around the world?

Copies of a letter written by Christopher Columbus describing his first impressions of the Americas have become so rare and valuable, they're being stolen and replaced with forgeries at some of the world's most prestigious libraries.

Here are the indigenous people Christopher Columbus and his men could not annihilate

This year the District of Columbia joins at least five states and dozens of cities and counties in replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It’s part of a decades-long reckoning with the sanitized version of the European colonization of the Americas.

Vermont passes bill abolishing Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day

The state is one signature away from abolishing Columbus Day altogether and permanently recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

‘Don’t they know Columbus never landed in America?’: Third-graders found error in their workbook. Here’s what they did about it.

The Math in Focus workbook said in a math problem that Columbus landed in America in 1492. The students at Valleyview Elementary School in Oneonta knew that wasn’t true — and they wanted the publisher to fix the error.

Columbus believed he would find ‘blemmyes’ and ‘sciapods’ – not people – in the New World

by Peter C. Mancall

Centuries of conventional wisdom had conditioned him to believe that bizarre beasts and 'monstrous men' would be awaiting him.

The Troubling History of the Fight to Honor Leif Erikson—Not Columbus—as the Man Who 'Discovered America'

Leif Erikson Day is a celebration of the Viking explorer credited with reaching the continent around the year 1000, nearly 500 years before Columbus did.

How Do We Get from the Statues We Have to the Statues We Want?

by Bruce W. Dearstyne

The New York City Monuments Commission has some ideas.

Seton Hall University's William Connell tells NPR why Italian-Americans embraced Columbus

Professor Connell tells how although Italians did not come to this country venerating Columbus, they found here an American public that did.

How Columbus, of all people, became a national symbol

by William Francis Keegan

Columbus likely would have slipped back into obscurity if not for American hubris.

The Invention of Christopher Columbus, American Hero

by Edward Burmila

How the founding fathers turned Christopher Columbus, a mediocre Italian sailor and mass murderer, into a historical icon.

As Confederate statues come down, what about Columbus?

While historians caution against lumping in Columbus with Confederates who came three centuries later, they say Columbus’ holiday and monuments remain ripe for reassessment — whether they stay, change or vanish entirely.

Should America Take Down Monuments That Romanticize Conquistadors?

“There’s a bigger issue here, and that is what it means to tell the truth about history,” says Stephanie Fryberg, a professor of American Indian Studies and Psychology at the University of Washington.

Conservatives are blaming Howard Zinn for “birthing” the "Anti-Columbus Crusade”

by Jarrett Stepman

"His narrative is based on the idea that not only was Columbus a villain, but the product of his discovery was also an evil."

The war against Columbus Day

A growing number of communities are now ditching the traditional Columbus Day holiday in favor of Indigenous People’s Day.

Perils of Indigenous People’s Day

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Students often think Native Americans are all dead.  Why? Teachers only teach what happened to them as victims from long ago.  

Campaign To Tear Down Statue of Christopher Columbus

For more than century a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus has adorned the Barcelona skyline, but now a group of anti-capitalist councilors are working to get the memorial torn down.