On the occasion of the Columbus quincentennial in 1992 a pundit declared inThe Chicago Tribune, “Poor Christopher Columbus. He’s dead, white, European male, politically incorrect… charged with a litany of sins… History can’t even get his name right. It was probably closer to Cristobal Colon.” This is an illustration of the countless attempts to “correct history” by rashly jumping from one mistake to another.

Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, his father’s name was Fortunato Colombo, his own name was Cristoforo Colombo. These facts are patent and easy to verify, yet the writer of this piece, titled, “Those who condemn Columbus ignore history’s complexity” ironically ignored part of this complexity. In the rush to dispel some of the many myths associated with Columbus’ “discovery” the author did not question whether the details were right. It seems that too often, we fail to question that which is perceived as fact, or fall into the trap of looking for the “quick and easy fix”.