Author:Bartolome Las Casas,Anthony Pagden
Bartolomé de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World. An early traveller to the Americas who sailed on one of Columbus's voyages, Las Casas was so horrified by the wholesale massacre he witnessed that he dedicated his life to protecting the Indian community. He wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies in 1542, a shocking catalogue of mass slaughter, torture and slavery, which showed that the evangelizing vision of Columbus had descended under later conquistadors into genocide. Dedicated to Philip II to alert the Castilian Crown to these atrocities and demand that the Indians be entitled to the basic rights of humankind, this passionate work of documentary vividness outraged Europe and contributed to the idea of the Spanish 'Black Legend' that would last for centuries.
Wonderfully compelling... Deeply moving
—— Sunday TimesA wonderous tale, beautifully told...mesmerising, poignant and almost incredible
—— New York TimesMeticulous and fascinating... Inspiring reading
—— SpectatorExtraordinary on many counts... It has taken the tireless detective work of Tom Reiss to uncover the real Lev Nussimbaum
—— Sunday TimesA highly entertaining biography of a very unusual person
—— Literary ReviewAn extraordinary tale of reinvention
—— GuardianFunny, exactly observed and humane
—— Daily TelegraphA highly enjoyable mingling of scholarship and sleuthing that elegantly solves the puzzle of one of the Twentieth Century's most mysterious writers
—— Paul TherouxA remarkable story of East meeting West, and the fantastic historical figure who stood astride both worlds, during an almost equally fantastic moment in time. This is history and biography that reads like a great novel
—— Kevin Baker, author of Paradise AlleyHe has a sharp eye for incongruities, and peppers the book with entertaining footnotes
—— Sunday Telegraph