Columbus and Western Civilization by Howard Zinn

In the year 1992, the celebration of Columbus Day was different from previous ones in two ways. First, this was the quincentennial, five hundred years after Columbus’ landing in this hemisphere. Second, it was a celebration challenged all over the country by people—many of them native Americans but also others—who had “discovered” a Columbus not worth celebrating, and who were rethinking the traditional glorification of “Western Civilization.” I gave this talk at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in October of 1991. It was published the following year in the Open Magazine Pamphlet Series with the title “Christopher Columbus & The Myth of Human Progress.”

Read Howard Zinn’s Columbus and Western Civilization here . . .