Rerelease (July 2020): Kris Lane: Tulane professor of Latin American History on Christopher Columbus, Washington Irving, and the Toppling of Outdated Statues

Before we return in two weeks with new episodes, we're reposting this one from the summer of 2020. With the 230th anniversary of Columbus's voyages on the horizon, and the continued culture war waged over the holiday named for him, it seemed like a good opportunity to repost our episode featuring historian Kris Lane.

From July 2020:

Professor Kris E. Lane joins the show to discuss the legacy of Christopher Columbus and how we came to believe myths about the man that don’t square with history. I invited him on specifically because of the recent spate of protests that have resulted in the removal of statues of problematic historical figures, Columbus being perhaps the epitome of them all.

Prof. Lane holds the France V. Scholes Chair in Colonial Latin American History at Tulane University. Before arriving at Tulane, he taught Latin American History at the College of William and Mary.

He is a Fulbright scholar and author whose many books include Piracy in the Early Modern Era, Latin America in Colonial Time, and Potosi: The Silver City that Changed the World, which won the 2020 Bandelier-Lavrin Prize for Best Book on Colonial Latin America.