Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Week of Sept 6-9 

Readings/Activities:

Read, Annotate, Research Notes

Required

1.  Zinn, A People’s History of the United States Chapter 1

2.  “Columbus”  The Lincoln Reader:  Book 4, p. 43-47 (search Google books p.65-69)

3.  Hero history: Christopher Columbus

4.  Selections from Eduardo Galeano, Genesis

5. An article on the origins of Columbus day  

Primary Source Documents (required everyone)

6. Bartolomé de las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542)

7. Columbus’ Journal  (1492)

Optional (Honors required)

8. Find Washington Irving’s biography of Columbus online.  It is available on Google books.  You do not have to read the whole thing, but rather skim for information and tone.  Address in your notes how Washington Irving’s biography may have influenced our collective historical memory of Columbus.

-AND/OR-

9. Read/Skim Chapter 1:  The American Tradition. How does the spin of the textbook compare to Howard Zinn’s?

10. Vocabulary Extraction

Make a list of 3-5 vocabulary words you extracted from the readings. (See formatting on my DP)

Extension

11. Independent Background Research

Find your own sources to analyze, primary or secondary.  Take good research notes!

12 . Watch more youtube cartoons about Columbus: are there any out there that diverge from the main myth?

 

Blog Synthesis (due Monday September 12)

Make a CLAIM and support it with evidence from your research.

a. Deconstruct our conception of Columbus:  Hero or Villain?

b.  Should Columbus Day be celebrated?

c.  Was conquest a necessary part of human progress?

d. Pose your own question and answer it.