Those who have read Samuel Elliott Morison’s Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942) will wonder if this work is even about the same explorer described by Morison, who was considered the dean of American historians in his generation. And, he was a master sailor and navigator. His biography arguably is one of the great biographies written by an American historian. So, Bergreen’s task is formidable, that is, to assess Columbus’s achievements with the hindsight of today’s values.

Bergreen’s Columbus is ill informed in navigation and has only a rudimentary sense of geography; and, he is propelled by an incredible ego that enlists the power of monarchs and of God in an all-out quest for privilege, recognition and wealth. Columbus is in this rendering delusional in virtually every undertaking. He loses his flagship at one point and is lost during many of his island passages.

Of greatest value in Bergreen’s work is the recounting of the interactions with Native People and the mistakes that multiply with every encounter. We get an inside look at the greed and ineptitude that wrecked the possibility of a new world partnership between Europeans and American Indians.

This book could be a starting place for new generations of students of American history who want to know how it got so badly off track. If a case is to be made for changing Columbus Day to Native American Day, Bergreen’s Columbus will be a valuable source for making the argument. And, it is well to be reminded here that the Carribean peoples encountered by Columbus were Native Americans, as surely as are the Sioux or Cherokee and so we can not generalize with out considering their treatment by European explorers and the destruction of their populations and cultures.

It may as well be said: our heroes are imbued with great personal attributes by generations of scholars and teachers hoping to inspire new generations. When one’s mark is to be made by writing for a more cynical age, the shoe is worn on the other foot. For this reason, Bergreen’s work may be remembered when Samuel Elliott Morisons’s is forgotten. Each work is an antidote for the other’s perspective. In choosing which to read first, keep in mind that Morison won the Pulitzer Prize. Bergreen’s is a challenging and surprising read for a modern audience.