Douglas Hunter's Blog, page 2

Goodreads contest

The Goodreads contest for 10 copies of The Race to the New World has ended. More than 1,100 people entered, so thank you for so much interest. The winners' names and addresses have been forwarded to Palgrave Macmillan in New York, and their copies will be sent out shortly.
Again, thanks to all for so much interest.

Columbus Day post

In honour of Columbus Day in the U.S., I posted a new essay on the website for my new book The Race to the New World on the links between Columbus, the "Indians" he encountered when he made landfall in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, and the simultaneous conquest of islands in the Canaries and enslavement of indigenous Guanches there by some of the same people backing Columbus. It's no accident Columbus thought the Indians would make good slaves and looked like Canary Islanders to him.
You can read it at
http://web.mac.com/dwh5/Site_3/Columb...
The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery

Thumbs up from Washington Post

Some kind words for The Race to the New World over the weekend in the Books section of the Washington Post: "a fascinating story of political desperation and artful salesmanship amid a European struggle for wealth and power." The full review is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...

lost in translations 2

Well I WAS thinking of doing a website posting on translation issues, but after a series of exchanges with the scholar expert in early Spanish who pitched in on The Race to the New World, I realized that a discussion/debate over translation choices involving 500-year-old subject and object pronouns, spelling variants, transcription issues, debates over whether a gender neutral pronoun can be specifically masculine...I decided that would be about as much fun to write as doing my own dental surgery and about as much fun for people to read as well. So maybe I'll focus on the researching and writing books stuff for now...

lost in translations

If you want to generate personal email as an author, publish a new translation of something from the late 15th century. I've been hearing about the retranslation of a 1496 letter from the Spanish crown to its diplomat in London regarding John Cabot's proposed voyage for Henry VII of England. This has long been a problematic document, and with the assistance of Dr. Janet Ritch, an expert in early Spanish and French, I brought forward in The Race to the New World a new take that proposes the phrase "lo de las Yndias" refers to Cabot, which would make him "the one from [or of] the Indies." I've been hearing from people on what THEY think the letter means. I'm beginning to think that this letter is like a Rorschach test, and that anyone can see in it whatever they like. I don't think there will ever be a definitive take on what this letter means, but the debate (which has been ongoing since the late 19th century) is interesting. I had an essay on the translation process on the book website, which I'm working on to update the debate, and I'll repost it fairly soonish.

Behind on reading

I feel a bit remiss in not having contributed much of anything on reading recommendations in some time. I have been reading more than I ever have over the past year, but my book consumption has overwhelmingly been devoted to my doctoral studies. Course work was completed last April. For comprehensive exams I need to have a handle on two reading lists of about 100 titles each. (My majors are Canadian history and Aboriginal studies; I have obtained a waiver that means I don't have to be examined on my other field, US history.)
When I get a chance I'll pore over my reading lists and recommend some titles that I think would be of interest to general history buffs.

Savaged in WSJ

Authors and publishers are accused of accentuating the positive in selecting reviews to publicize. That's not a surprising behaviour: who wants to spread bad news? But every now and then you get a review so savagely vitriolic that you have to embrace the thing and actually address it. Such was the case today for me with an absolutely excoriating assessment of The Race to the New World (and me) in the Wall Street Journal by Notre Dame's Felipe Fernández-Armesto.
I was quite taken aback by the sheer venom of the thing, not to mention the errors. (For one thing I can never be found "explaining apologetically" that contrary to the title, there was no race to the new world. I never discussed the title at all. Bizarre) I decided to reply on my book's website. You can follow the link to my rebuttal, which also has a link to the review.
Unfortunately, it's this sort of review that reinforces a general impression of academics being insular and defensive of their professional turf. And contrary to the reviewers attempt to paint me as an amateur where history is concerned, I am a doctoral candidate in history. I am not amused by his contention that my work is marked by “incompetence in research, a lack of critical discrimination and a chutzpah reminiscent of Columbus's own.'
http://web.mac.com/dwh5/Site_3/WSJ_re... 

Website for The Race to the New World

The Race to the New World is officially published tomorrow (World English ex-Canada; Douglas & McIntyre will bring out the Canadian edition in March 2012). I've been doing some final organizing/reorganizing of the website dedicated to the book, at www.racenewworld.org. The site includes essays I've written especially for it, and I hope to continue to expand its scope.

Who was Columbus, really?

Perhaps only Shakespeare has generated as much controversy as Christopher Columbus over his "true" identity. In writing The Race to the New World I had to sift through the evidence for the explorer's early life, along the way confronting the various theories that he was not who he appeared to be, namely a native of Genoa. I address the evidence for his Genoese roots in a new essay on the book's website, adapted from the first chapter of the book.
http://web.mac.com/dwh5/Site_3/Who_wa...

Thumbs up from Booklist

A very strong review from Booklist for The Race to the New World:
"It’s hard to imagine that there is still uncharted territory in the history of the New World’s discovery. But Hunter indeed sails unsullied waters, offering an intriguing and surprising new twist on the old subject. Other historians have paralleled the voyages of Columbus and Cabot...but Hunter interweaves their stories and places them firmly into the complex geopolitical landscape of Renaissance Europe...As this fascinating historical detective story unfolds, new pieces of an old puzzle are put into place, providing fresh perspective on the traditional discovery narrative. This important contribution to the scholarship of exploration history should also please readers who enjoy well-researched revisionist histories like Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower (2006.)"
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nathaniel Philbrick
The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery