The Day Before Columbus

Today is Columbus Day, or El Dia de la Raza, or Indigenous Peoples Day, depending on where you are and your point of view. Certainly, the holiday is a contentious one. After all, what exactly are we celebrating if and when we observe Columbus Day? The textbook answer -- the discovery of the Americas -- never really sufficed since the continents were already settled and had been for many thousands of years, not to mention the fact that the Vikings had already come and gone. And while Columbus's journey may have turned out rather well for the seafaring nations of Europe, it was the beginning of the end for millions of native Americans, who succumbed first to the newcomers' pathogens and only much later to their weapons and sheer numbers.

In his award-winning book, 1491, (which grew from this Atlantic Monthly article), author Charles Mann re-examined the "New World" that Columbus found 500 years ago, dispelling in the process the myth of a pristine, untouched land and asserting instead that the hemisphere was "thoroughly dominated by humankind" and far more salubrious than previously imagined, thanks in part to that human dominance. Mann's revisionist and at times largely speculative picture may not be wholly accurate, but it is compelling. And if it runs afoul of some of environmentalism's cherished myths, well, so be it. After all, the most robust -isms profit from constant re-examination. Giving critical consideration to Mann's argument, it seems to me, would be a worthy way to honor the day.