1) Schuman, Howard, Barry Schwartz, and Hannah d’Arcy. “Elite revisionists and popular beliefs: Christopher Columbus, hero or villain?.” Public Opinion Quarterly 69.1 (2005): 2-29.
Notes:
• “Our first major finding was that 85 percent of this national sample gave Simple Traditional answers (category 2) that basically described Columbus as the “discoverer of America.” Only 6 percent were more laudatory and gave Heroic responses; at the other extreme, fewer than 4 percent characterized Columbus in the Villainous terms advanced by revisionist writers and protestors, and another 2 percent acknowledged the priority of the Indians, for a total of just under 6 percent who held revisionist beliefs broadly defined.”
• “Surveys of the American public, using several different question forms and wordings, produced little evidence of an impact from revisionist ideas: the predominant public belief is the traditional one that Columbus merits admiration as the “discoverer of America.” At the same time, we also found little evidence among Americans, especially younger cohorts, of the heroic image of Columbus that may have been widespread at the 400th anniversary in 1892 and in the early twentieth century.”
Abstract:
Most Americans recognize Columbus as the discoverer of America without glorifications according to these surveys.
2) Larner, John P. “North American Hero? Christopher Columbus 1702-2002.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 137, no. 1, 1993, pp. 46–63. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/986944.
Notes:
• Pg. 61 – Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the second Monday in October as Columbus Day.
• Pg. 62 – Space shuttle Columbia, Columbus represents exploration and curiosity.
3) Fernandez-Armesto, F. “Columbus–Hero or Villain?.” History Today, vol. 42, no. 5, May 1992, p. 4. EBSCOhost, proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9205183670&site=ehost-live.
Notes:
• “It is commonly said that the traditional Columbus myth – which awards him personal credit for anything good that ever came out of America since 1492 – originated in the War of Independence, when the founding fathers, in search of an American hero, pitched on the Genoese weaver as the improbable progenitor of all-American virtues. Joel Barlow’s poem, The Vision of Columbus, appeared in 1787. Columbus remained a model for nineteenth-century Americans, engaged in a project for taming their own wilderness. Washington Irving’s perniciously influential History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus of 1828 – which spread a lot of nonsense including the ever-popular folly that Columbus was derided for claiming that the world was round – appealed unashamedly to Americans’ self-image as promoters of civilization.”
• “contemporaries were convinced by his gigantic self-esteem for him to become literally a legend in his own lifetime. To a leading astrological guru at the court of Spain, he was ‘like a new apostle’. To a humanist from Italy who taught the would-be Renaissance men of Castile, he was ‘the sort of whom the ancients made gods’.”
• “Columbus seems to have been predisposed to self-persuasion by saturation in the right literary models: saints, prophets and heroes of romance. Despite his astonishing record of achievement, and his impressive accumulation of earthly rewards, he had an implacable temperament which could never be satisfied, and an unremitting ambition which could never be assuaged. Such men always think themselves hard done by. His extraordinary powers of persuasion – his communicator’s skills which won backing for an impossible project in his lifetime – have continued to win followers of his legend ever since his death.”
Abstract:
Columbus persuaded people to think of him highly even during his time, but was a very selfish and egotistical man.
4) Lunenfeld, Marvin. “What Shall We Tell the Children? The Press Encounters Columbus.” The History Teacher, vol. 25, no. 2, 1992, pp. 137–144. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/494270.
Notes:
• “Nations outgrow heroes, the way children must learn to live without Santa”
• “So put yourself in Columbus’s shoes, You started out with the best intentions. You were going to get rich and save the world. You didn’t see any contradiction there. You were the first American”
Abstract:
Christopher Columbus was once known as America’s hero, but America no longer needs him. America outgrew Columbus and looks past the patriotism surrounding him and can see his intentions.