Admiral of the Ocean Sea
A Life of Christopher Columbus

Columbus: the vile, despicable villain, who brought torture, tragedy, and terror to the American continents--a founding father of white male arrogance and bigotry. That is the most common depiction of the 15th century Genoese explorer that I come across from colleagues, media, and academics nowadays.......more

"Admiral of the Ocean Sea" was the title bestowed on him by grateful Spanish monarchs after his triumphant return from the New World, but Christopher Columbus did a great many terrible things. Indeed, so great is the general public’s awareness of the cruelties of Columbus’ reign in the Americas that......more

Samuel Elliot Morrison makes his intentions very clear about what he was after in this biography of Cristóbal Colon: he wanted to show what the man did, not who he was. All of the modern criticism of the man focuses less on the man, and more on the era in which he lived. It was a violent, horrible e......more

This book is large, but very readable and the author manages to keep things interesting through all four of Columbus’ voyages of discovery. It was written by Samuel Eliot Morison after he retraced Columbus’ voyages in 1939-1940 with the Harvard Columbus Expedition. Morison, who won the Pulitzer Priz......more

Over sixty years ago Morison set out to sail Columbus' four voyages as research for this biography, identifying his landmarks wherever possible. The project was not quite completed because of the advent of World War II, but he did enough to give great color, verve, and immediacy to this engrossing a......more