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liantener's review against another edition
3.0
Muy interesante recuento de lo que pudo haber sido la historia de la flota china en el siglo XXIII, y los logros que pudieron y debieron alcanzar entonces, entre ellos, llegar a América antes que los europeos.
meganmarjorie's review against another edition
3.0
Very readable and fun, especially for those interested in Chinese history. China most definitely had the capacity to do all Menzies claims - the rate of their technological advancements compared to their European contemporaries, until isolation, shows considerable disparities. As soon as it diverges from the proven history though, the book becomes a little too far-fetched for my taste. Perhaps it would have worked better as an intentional alternate history/what-if scenario rather than a weakly-supported theory.
Despite the widespread skepticism, it does make me eagerly anticipate new potential discoveries, such as shipwrecks from Zheng He's fleet, and how those might further shape our understanding of China's unrivaled power, at least spanning East Asia, that extended all the way to the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Despite the widespread skepticism, it does make me eagerly anticipate new potential discoveries, such as shipwrecks from Zheng He's fleet, and how those might further shape our understanding of China's unrivaled power, at least spanning East Asia, that extended all the way to the end of the Ming Dynasty.
goob's review against another edition
1.0
God awful "historical" book. What little citation there is for Menzies claims have largely been disproven and to make matters worse he passes off speculation as facts.
commandodave's review against another edition
3.0
Wow if this is even partly true this complete change the history of the world.
lovmelovmycats's review against another edition
1.0
I rated this book "Didn't like it", because I don't like it. However, when I read it I thought it was awesome. A little while after finishing it, I realized how much bullshit Menzies' theories and "sources" were.
jonas47073's review against another edition
1.0
For anyone attempting to learn history or just trying to find that perfect gift for the iconoclast in his or her life, this book will not suffice. The arguments are irrational: sometimes specious, sometimes spurious. He makes reference to myriad sources, but on closer inspection many are cherry-picked or of questionable value.
However, as a character study, this book may well be worth your time. It is a story of a submarine captain so enthralled with the sex customs of the Orient that he devotes his retirement to piecing together a web of stories. At some point this obsession consumes him and like a paranoid schizophrenic he starts seeing the Chinese everywhere and behind everything. He hopes that by writing he can exorcise his demons thereby regaining some inkling of rational thought. Alas, this is not the case as we pulled along through increasingly specious and fanciful notions of what constitutes historical evidence.
The book begins with a walk through the well-trodden history of imperial China with a special emphasis on prostitutes, foreskin beads, and eunuchs. I can only hope that this part of the book is accurate. While the early chapters are quite developed his knowledge of Chinese history as a whole can only be described as skin deep.
The initial chapters about the voyages to India and East Africa seem reasonable enough, but at some point we are subjected to claims that nearly every rock or architectural curiosity on the Eastern Seaboard is Chinese in origin. These claims lack any real evidence. Often a quick Internet search will give much more plausible explanations.
In the end he claims the Chinese are responsible for almost everything, but the Renaissance. Oh wait… that’s the sequel!
However, as a character study, this book may well be worth your time. It is a story of a submarine captain so enthralled with the sex customs of the Orient that he devotes his retirement to piecing together a web of stories. At some point this obsession consumes him and like a paranoid schizophrenic he starts seeing the Chinese everywhere and behind everything. He hopes that by writing he can exorcise his demons thereby regaining some inkling of rational thought. Alas, this is not the case as we pulled along through increasingly specious and fanciful notions of what constitutes historical evidence.
The book begins with a walk through the well-trodden history of imperial China with a special emphasis on prostitutes, foreskin beads, and eunuchs. I can only hope that this part of the book is accurate. While the early chapters are quite developed his knowledge of Chinese history as a whole can only be described as skin deep.
The initial chapters about the voyages to India and East Africa seem reasonable enough, but at some point we are subjected to claims that nearly every rock or architectural curiosity on the Eastern Seaboard is Chinese in origin. These claims lack any real evidence. Often a quick Internet search will give much more plausible explanations.
In the end he claims the Chinese are responsible for almost everything, but the Renaissance. Oh wait… that’s the sequel!
readingpanda's review against another edition
1.0
You might have that certain relative in your family who is affable enough, but has some really weird ideas that he loves to go on about. For the sake of this review, let's call him "Uncle Gavin." Uncle Gavin is harmless, and charms your friends, but he has one pet topic that you try to steer him away from. Before you know it, he's started asking your friends who they think discovered the world and after a short time, the friend's nods and smiles go from sincerely interested to polite to barely hanging on, and they're looking around desperately for someone to rescue them from this conversation.
Uncle Gavin wrote this book. His premise sounds interesting, and perhaps sane, if far-fetched: he claims that the Chinese sailed essentially the entire world in 1421-23 and made maps of such voyages that were later used to guide the Portuguese and Spanish explorers who "discovered" America and other parts of the world. Why this has been a hidden fact for so long: the Chinese burned nearly every record of the voyages, stopped exploration, and basically forgot about the whole thing over the centuries. Why Uncle Gavin is the only person to have figured this out: he used to captain submarines and therefore knows how ocean currents work and can read a nautical chart. I'll let that sink in for a moment.
In any case, I was willing to go along with him at first, but it became apparent pretty quickly that things were spiraling out of control. I rarely make notes on audio books, but I found myself frantically scribbling things down when I was listening to this one. Things like:
"Just because Verrazzano compared some lighter-skinned Indians and their manner of dress to the "Eastern" style doesn't mean that they are descended from his [Menzies'] imaginary pregnant concubines that were put ashore from his imaginary overcrowded voyages."
I was going to list more, but as I look at that one, I think it sums up everything. Look, it's an interesting idea that the Chinese could have sent an enormous fleet out to see what there was out there, and that they could have drawn up a map of everything, and then decided to close their borders and give up on the outside world, and that the maps could have ended up in the hands of the European explorers, and that those explorers could have found knick-knacks that were Chinese and people who might have been descended from Chinese people who ended up there long-term one way or another. But if you're going to tell me, Uncle Gavin, that the Chinese took out 40 or 50 ships which were wrecked in various places and stayed and lived there, you're going to have to come up with some physical evidence. Wrecked ships off India, or eastern Africa, or Australia simply do not prove that Chinese people built the Bimini Road in the Caribbean to get their ships on land for repairs or had a settlement on Greenland (I am not kidding. I wish I were kidding.).
If this were half as long and half as crazy, it might be worth a perusal. As it is, run from this book. Read Foucault's Pendulum, which features the same sort of wild connect-the-dots game and also has going for it that it is fiction.
PS - It turns out that Menzies has also published 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. I imagine that he is now deep into the writing of 1468: The Year China Traveled to the Moon and Discovered Life and 1498: The Year China Invented Synthetic Life and Created the Spice Girls.
Uncle Gavin wrote this book. His premise sounds interesting, and perhaps sane, if far-fetched: he claims that the Chinese sailed essentially the entire world in 1421-23 and made maps of such voyages that were later used to guide the Portuguese and Spanish explorers who "discovered" America and other parts of the world. Why this has been a hidden fact for so long: the Chinese burned nearly every record of the voyages, stopped exploration, and basically forgot about the whole thing over the centuries. Why Uncle Gavin is the only person to have figured this out: he used to captain submarines and therefore knows how ocean currents work and can read a nautical chart. I'll let that sink in for a moment.
In any case, I was willing to go along with him at first, but it became apparent pretty quickly that things were spiraling out of control. I rarely make notes on audio books, but I found myself frantically scribbling things down when I was listening to this one. Things like:
"Just because Verrazzano compared some lighter-skinned Indians and their manner of dress to the "Eastern" style doesn't mean that they are descended from his [Menzies'] imaginary pregnant concubines that were put ashore from his imaginary overcrowded voyages."
I was going to list more, but as I look at that one, I think it sums up everything. Look, it's an interesting idea that the Chinese could have sent an enormous fleet out to see what there was out there, and that they could have drawn up a map of everything, and then decided to close their borders and give up on the outside world, and that the maps could have ended up in the hands of the European explorers, and that those explorers could have found knick-knacks that were Chinese and people who might have been descended from Chinese people who ended up there long-term one way or another. But if you're going to tell me, Uncle Gavin, that the Chinese took out 40 or 50 ships which were wrecked in various places and stayed and lived there, you're going to have to come up with some physical evidence. Wrecked ships off India, or eastern Africa, or Australia simply do not prove that Chinese people built the Bimini Road in the Caribbean to get their ships on land for repairs or had a settlement on Greenland (I am not kidding. I wish I were kidding.).
If this were half as long and half as crazy, it might be worth a perusal. As it is, run from this book. Read Foucault's Pendulum, which features the same sort of wild connect-the-dots game and also has going for it that it is fiction.
PS - It turns out that Menzies has also published 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. I imagine that he is now deep into the writing of 1468: The Year China Traveled to the Moon and Discovered Life and 1498: The Year China Invented Synthetic Life and Created the Spice Girls.
joshi's review against another edition
4.0
Though riddled with several baseless conjectures, the book also presents some pretty solid evidence for its thesis. I remain not completely convinced, but do not deny that it was a very well-written, interesting read.
jsjammersmith's review against another edition
2.0
At 1009 reviews that all basically say the same thing, there isn't much I could really add. This book really wasn't great, or particularly enjoyable, or even good historically (both in terms of method and narrative).
But honestly, the most disappointing thing, is that this book should have been cool. It should have been an interesting and insightful argument that would have had really important implications for human expansion and exploration...but it just wasn't. Maybe a later, and better, book will be published if more evidence comes forward, but for now, yeah, this book just wasn't great or good or interesting.
But honestly, the most disappointing thing, is that this book should have been cool. It should have been an interesting and insightful argument that would have had really important implications for human expansion and exploration...but it just wasn't. Maybe a later, and better, book will be published if more evidence comes forward, but for now, yeah, this book just wasn't great or good or interesting.