Two Myths Are Not Better Than One

Abstract

Ten years ago, who would have thought the memory of Christopher Columbus would trigger a national debate? Certainly not John Goudie, former chairman of the Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission, who with a straight face, once invited Americans to join the "uncontroversial and universally appealing" 500th anniversary celebration. But as one writer recently noted, "The Columbus Quincentennial is the United States' first ritual of national-cultural memory to take place in the climate of multiculturalism and postcolonial thought."

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