The Battle Over America's Origin Story : Legends, Amateurs, and Professional Historiographers

This book examines the legends of who 'really' discovered America. It argues that histories of America's origins were always based less on empirical evidence and more on social, political, and cultural wish fulfillment. Influenced by a complex interplay of Nativist hatred of immigrants and Aboriginal people, as well as distrust of academic scholarship, these legends ebbed and flowed with changing conditions in wider American society. The book focuses on the actions of a collection of quirky, obsessed amateur investigators who spent their lives trying to prove their various theories by promoting Welsh princes, Vikings, Chinese admirals, Neo-lithic Europeans, African explorers, and others who they say arrived centuries before Columbus. These myths acted as mitigating agencies for those who embraced them. Along with recent scholarship, this book makes extensive use of archival materials -- some of which have never been employed before. It covers the period from the sixteenth century to the present. It brings together separate historiographic ideas to create a unified history rather than focusing on one particular legend as most books on the subject do. It shows how questions of who discovered America helped create the field of historical scholarship in this country. This book does not attempt to prove who discovered America, rather it tells the story of those who think they did. Brian Regal is Associate Professor of history at Kean University, USA Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: Waiting for Columbus Introduction Chapter 2: “Unforeseen and Unforeseeable” Introduction Writing American History The Gentlemen Scholars The Scientific Historians Teaching American History Conclusion Chapter 3: The Legend of Christopher Columbus The Difficult Legacy Bartolomé de Las Casas Ferdinand Columbus The Naming Craze Washington Irving Columbus Gets His Day Amerigo Vespucci Columbus and Memory That Other Columbus Conclusion Chapter 4: The Mound Builders Bad Indians Good Mound Builders Questions of Methodology Squier and Davis Cyrus Thomas Conclusion Chapter 5: Saints Preserve Us Saint Brendan The Prince and the Alchemist The Ballad of John Thomas Evans Madoc in Decline The Merchant from Venice Conclusion Chapter 6: The Viking Theory Origins of Norse Fandom From Eric to Leif The Vinland Sagas Appear The Antiquitates Americanae The Reaction Eben Norton Horsford Horsford and the Poets Olé Bull A Statue of Leif Conclusion Chapter 7: The Lost City of New England “Here Once Stood a house of Leif Erikson’s, or so we are told” Norumbega David Ingram’s Walk Showing Off Norumbega Horsford’s Critics More Anti-Catholics Conclusion Chapter 8: The Asia and Africa Theories The Asia Theory Fusang An Inglorious Columbus Maps and Anchors The Africa Theory Leo Wiener Afrocentrism Ivan Van Sertima Black Athena Conclusion Chapter 9: Stone Temple Pilots A Field Full of Artifacts The Inscription Hunters Dighton Rock A Rune Stone and a Rude Map Gloria Farley Barry Fell The Davenport Tablets Conclusion Chapter 10: The Video Theorists They Might Be Giants Outsiders: The Next Generation The Video Theorists Graham Hancock Scott Wolter Africa Videos The Solutrean Theory Conclusion Chapter 11: Nellie Horsford’s Last Stand Nellie Horsford The Death of Eben Norton Horsford Some Historians Visit The Journey of the Viking Conclusion Chapter 12: Conclusion Bibliography Index