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Title: 1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies ISBN: 0-06-053763-9 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.59 (87 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Controversial Alternative History
Comment: Gavin Menzies employed his experience as a mariner with detaled research into Chinese and European history to make a daring conclusion: that Chinese discovered the New World (and much more) at least seventy years before Columbus made his journey.
This thick volume is filled with facts, experience, conjecture, a fair amount of logic, and certainly passion. Despite some repetition and a tendency for conjecture, Menzies serves up a compelling circumstantial case. His story reads something like a historical mystery novel, finding clues and often answers from a wide range of sources.
The strength of 1421... lies in its vivid evocations of Chinese maritime life, from shipbuilding to sailing. It's just one of several books that are now being published on a remarable era in Chinese history.
Rating: 2
Summary: Odd but interesting revisionist account
Comment: It's a shame no book actually exists chronicling the amazing and far reaching voyages of the Chinese discovery fleet. This was a massive fleet numbering more then ten thousand men. It was larger then anything the Europeans would ever put to see to serve the sole purpose of discovery. The Chinese fleet was also an anomaly. China was the 'middle kingdom' and the Chinese knew they were the center of the universe. So it was odd the prior to 1421 a large fleet was sent five times to discover new lands. The Chinese did not try and conquer these lands, and they barely even tried to trade. Thus it is a shame this book does not detail these voyages more.
Instead the author decided to write some revisionist history. The author decided that 'maybe' the Chinese Fleet, on its sixth and last voyage(one whose findings would later be burned and all record of discovery destroyed) 'discovered' America. Apparently they planted some corn and cavorted with the Indians. The evidence? Well none. The author conjures up some interesting stories about a European who accompanied the voyage, and some other theories that support the theory that Cook and Magellan had 'maps' that already depicted the new world. Well lets not go crazy. If Columbus knew where he was going then why was he scared that his crew would fall off the face of the earth? There is some question about why Magellan thought he could go all the way around the earth, but just because Magellan had guts doesn't mean he was following Chinese maps.
The book is disjointed, the author speaks in the first person far to much and little evidence is used. It is an interesting book and an interesting theory but unfortunately its just totally incorrect.
Rating: 1
Summary: Lame Pseudo-history
Comment: I picked this book up during a long layover at Heathrow.
Amusingly, the English title is "1421: The Year China
Discovered the World" (as opposed to "America"). The
publishers know their target markets, I guess. At first
glance, it looked to be a semi-serious popular history
of the last voyages of the great Chinese exploration fleets,
a topic which interests me, so I bought it. What a
disappointment! The author mutilates logic, history, biology,
and linguistics to support his notions of what the Chinese
might have done. The Chinese navigators probably did do
some of the less ludicrous things that Menzies suggests.
But the intellectually dishonest style of the book actually
makes me *less* inclined to believe it. I would recommend
this book only to real fans of pseudo-science, who will
find many hours of amusement playing spot-the-fallacy in
the 600-odd pages. You have been warned.
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Title: When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 by Louise Levathes ISBN: 0195112075 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Arab Seafaring by George Fadlo Hourani, John Carswell ISBN: 0691000328 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 03 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield ISBN: 0520232143 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 06 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Ancient Mariners by Lionel Casson ISBN: 0691014779 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 26 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Lost Discoveries : The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya by Dick Teresi ISBN: 0684837188 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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