So, I finally put down the grading this evening and picked up a library book, The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester; it's about the... Well, not discovery of the New World, but rather how it was understood at the time. It centers around the so-called 'America's Birth Certificate,' a 1507 map which delineated the New World as NOT a hitherto unknown part of Asia AND called them "America" after Vespucci.
But that's not the fun thing. The fun thing I want to share is the quote from the back of the book by P.J. O'Rourke who is (I think) a darned good wit. He blurbs, "What distinguishes civilized people from barbarians? It's the map of the world they have in their minds. A barbarian's map marks the spot of just a few things: herds of sheep to steal, convenience stores to rob, political opponents to condemn on talk radio or the internet. A civilized person tries to see the world as whole."
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