This is NOT an article about the current controversy surrounding the celebration of Columbus Day as a national holiday. This essay is an attempt to present a brief summary of Columbus “the man, the myth, the legacy,” which is the subject and subtitle of a well-documented book by John Noble Wilford.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author characterizes Columbus the man as representing “the best and worst of humanity.” His courage, persistence and ambition attempting to seek a new world illustrate admirable human qualities. Another historian, Samuel Morrison, has written that “Columbus’ skill as a mariner is beyond dispute. He went where no man had gone before.”

The dark side of Columbus the man includes the fact that he was partly responsible for the “brutal exploitation of the lands he found. He had a bloodied hand in the brutalization of the natives and the slave trade.” Wilford adds, however, that Columbus did not introduce slavery to the new world. The practice existed before his arrival.

Columbus the myth has too long a history (over 500 years) to summarize here. Historians range from those who consider Columbus the personification of a heroic figure with all the necessary character traits to those who condemned his greed, dishonesty and abuse of the indigenous peoples he discovered and then enslaved.

One example of the positive aspect is that many immigrants to America after the Civil War and into the 20th century considered Columbus a hero worthy of a national holiday in his honor. This was made official in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One example of the negative aspect (greed and dishonesty) is that Columbus took credit from the lookout who first spotted land and thus he received a lifelong pension as a reward, stealing it from the sailor.

Columbus the legacy is also difficult to summarize, but historian John Wilford attempts to do so in the penultimate chapter of his book, where he presents a detailed chronological summary of the explorer’s place in history, which “has followed a curious course.” Near the end of his book the author answers the question of whether Columbus was a great man as follows:

“No, if greatness is measured by one’s stature among contemporaries. Yes, if greatness derives from the audacity of his undertaking and the magnitude of its impact on subsequent history.”

He ends this chapter with the following conclusion: “Ultimately, Columbus’ place in history can only be judged in relation to the place accorded America in history.”

Most historians agree that Columbus created a bridge between the old and the new world, ushering in the modern age, transforming the world forever. One such author, William McNeill, goes so far as to say that “what Columbus started in 1492 was carried forward by others until the entire globe became a single interacting whole.”

Columbus’ discoveries led to transforming changes not only in America but throughout Europe as well.

Several U.S. cities and states have replaced Columbus Day with alternative days of remembrance, such as Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 11. Why not celebrate both Columbus and the Native peoples he encountered, perhaps ending the controversy with a compromise?

Jim Izzo is a retired teacher living in Mystic.