Carole Delaney has written a very approachable and highly readable book about Columbus for the general public, choosing to deal most thoroughly with his millenarian beliefs, ties to the Franciscan order, and the religious ideas behind his voyages. The book draws on published materials, many of them primary sources, but introduces no new archival findings. Delaney manages the sources well. The Times Literary Supplement hailed her work as one of the 100 best books of 2011.

The key finding of the book is that Columbus was as much driven by millenarian goals as commercial. As has been well documented in other studies, he considered the possibility of sailing west to reach the gold and spices of the Orient as key to an ultimate Christian flanking attack on the Muslims who controlled the Holy Land and the trade routes between Europe and the Far East. Columbus spent several years living with the Franciscan friars at the convent of La Rábida, near Huelva, where he became familiar with the millenarian writings of Joachim of Fiore. Throughout his career, he continued to be a man of faith, dedicated to prayer and seeking divine inspiration. Delaney draws heavily on selected sources in building her argument, including Columbus's correspondence with the crown, crown officials, and others. Columbus wrote his Libro de profecias as a type of apologia, in which he delineated his role in the fulfillment of Christian prophecy. As Delaney rightly suggests, that book provides a unique insight into the mind of the discoverer.

Delaney's study covers very important issues in a convenient format. It could readily serve as a supplementary text in courses dealing with the discovery.