| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Sinking Columbus: Contested History, Cultural Politics, and Mythmaking during the Quincentenary. By Stephen J. Summerhill and John Alexander Williams. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. xii, 219 pp. $49.95, ISBN 0-8130-1799-8.)

Christopher Columbus has been dead for nearly five centuries, but the debate over his legacy goes on. In this book the authors provide a detailed analysis of why the 1992 quincentenary was a failure, not only in the United States but in every nation in the Americas and even in European countries that attempted an observance. The book's treatment of the various efforts is uneven. The machinations of the "Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission" and the various celebratory disasters around the United States are understandably central since the authors, Stephen J. Summerhill and John Alexander Williams, were planners or observers of this country's celebration. The authors' conclusion is concisely stated in their introduction:

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The Quincentenary succeeded because it failed. Planners set out to celebrate an imperial past but found themselves confronting difficult questions about the rise of colonialism, the destruction of native American societies, and the disruption of biological habitats throughout the globe.

In this way, the writers claim, "1992 contributed to an increased public recognition of the importance of nature, native peoples, and human rights in contemporary society." . . .

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