Library:Inventing the Flat Earth
| Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jeffrey Burton Russell |
| First published | 1991 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | History Education & Learning |
| Tactics | Fabrication False Context |
Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians is a 1991 book by Jeffrey Burton Russell.
Summary
Historian Jeffrey Burton Russell traces the widespread belief that medieval Europeans thought the Earth was flat, and that Columbus had to prove otherwise. He shows that educated medieval Europeans knew the Earth was a sphere.
Key points
- A 19th-century myth. The story was popularized in the 1800s, including by Washington Irving's romanticized 1828 biography of Columbus.
- The conflict thesis. Russell links the myth to 19th-century writers who portrayed science and religion as historically at war.
- Columbus's real dispute. Columbus's critics doubted his estimate of the Earth's size, not its shape, and they were right.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The book debunks a myth about myths: the belief that people in the past were foolish about something they actually understood.