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1421: The Year China Discovered the World by: Gavin Menzies Price: £52.38 Prices subject to change. |
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Binding: Hardcover EAN: 9780593050781 ISBN: 0593050789 Label: Bantam Press Manufacturer: Bantam Press Number Of Pages: 544 Publication Date: November 04, 2002 Publisher: Bantam Press Studio: Bantam Press Sales Rank: 175078 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: If you're going to make a stir, you might as well do it in style. And Gavin Menzies has caused one, big time. In 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, this retired Royal Navy submarine commander, who only visited China for the first time on his 25th wedding anniversary, claims that the Chinese navigator Zheng He discovered America some 71 years before Columbus. And not content with this, he goes on to suggest that Zheng He learnt how to calculate longitude several centuries before John Harrison supposedly nailed the problem. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down too well in some areas and the book has been the target of some scepticism. Although Menzies has unearthed a few unknown primary sources, the bulk of his thesis depends on amalgamating several disparate areas of research into a grand unified theory. So he combines what we do know--principally that the Chinese built huge sailing ships with nine masts and that Asiatic chickens were discovered in South America--into what he considers compelling evidence. Menzies has also turned up some maps from the pre-Columbus era that appear to show the Americas, along with a few shipwrecks and Ming artefacts from along his supposed route. It all makes for a gripping read, even if the sum doesn't quite add up to the whole. For all the detail, Menzies is some way off providing proof. None of the supposed 28,000 colonists has left any documentary evidence because all records, boats and shipyards associated with his voyage were burnt by imperial order in 1433. This surely begs the question--if we know so much of Zheng He's voyages around the Indian Ocean, how come we know nothing of his trips further east? Nor, conveniently for Menzies, did any of the colonists return home in triumph. They either died en route or skulked home to obscurity after they were disowned by the emperor. So you either accept Menzies as an act of faith or brush him aside with scepticism. Either way, you'll have a lot of fun in the process as the book is never less than provocative. And even the sceptics will find themselves hoping Menzies has got it right, because there's something intrinsically uplifting about the notion of an amateur historian getting one over the professionals. --John Crace Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Risible, flea-brained stupidityThere is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history. Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots. Rating:  - An interesting readThe basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries ... Read More: Rating: - Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish historyYou'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but. It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers. Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy. The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. ... Read More: Rating: - Mind boggling pseudo-historyHis far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis. Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false. Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at Rating: - Fiction not FactWhy do so many people believe this sort of rubbish when there are no facts to back any of it up? |
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