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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I liked this book but I needed to see the maps. Lots and lots of maps. That would have helped. The book really glamorizes China, almost too much. But why would they destroy everything that they did? And if they were so good how could they have retro-ceded? I suppose it's like the Dark Ages for Europe.
Notes:
Iron is found almost everywhere except for Central America.
In 1421, Greenland was a lot warmer than it was today and it had pastures and that's why the Chinese could cross over the north side of it to get to America. At least I think that's the route that they did.
Peru was originally a Chinese colony?
Horses were found in America well before Columbus. Take that BOM naysayers, you're wrong again.
Notes:
Iron is found almost everywhere except for Central America.
In 1421, Greenland was a lot warmer than it was today and it had pastures and that's why the Chinese could cross over the north side of it to get to America. At least I think that's the route that they did.
Peru was originally a Chinese colony?
Horses were found in America well before Columbus. Take that BOM naysayers, you're wrong again.
informative
slow-paced
This book discusses Chinese voyages that reached the North American continent years before Columbus did. I was unaware that voyages such as these had taken place, probably due to my lacking American education that only focuses on Christopher Columbus, but it seems very reasonable that many other peoples could have voyaged that distance if Scandinavians also did. This book had a lot of information about the fall of the Chinese empire during this time, and it would have been a good book to read when I was in my Modern China class last term.
informative
slow-paced
In this book, a retired submarine caption aims to prove that the Chinese circumnavigated the world and discovered all the continents in 1421-23 AD, then destroyed all records. I got the general idea within the first few chapters. What to believe? I don’t feel like doing the research to find out what’s bogus about it, but I don’t trust the author.
It's interesting to read, but his theories have been criticized more than they have been acclaimed by historical scholars.
OK so even if this IS pseudohistory as some say, it's a compelling theory. The author tends to repeat himself a lot, which was a little annoying, but I feel like he can't be ABSOLUTELY proven wrong any more than he can absolutely be proven right.
I made it to page 37, but between the debunking in other reviews, the weird exotic pedestaling of ancient China, and the fact that he can't stop talking about concubines in the same breath as entertainment and food? I'm out.
Lots of assumptions not necessarily based on any scientific data. Perhaps the Chinese were here in circa 1421 sailing up the Taunton River and leaving artifacts in Acton. I'd like to see the proof.
The premise of the book is intriguing and the author wholeheartedly believes what he is writing, however it is difficult to take research seriously when the author makes such blatantly obvious errors particularly when those errors aren't even related to the research. For example in the postscript he refers to his book in 2002 being released in several countries including "West Germany". West Germany ceased to be a country over a decade earlier when West and East Germany were reunited. Also in the postscript he refers to areas "further up the Mississippi [river], in Wisconsin and Michigan ..." The Mississippi River at no point flows through Michigan. It flows through MINNESOTA. Early in the book he refers to a compass pointing to magnetic south instead of magnetic north. He also describes reefing a sail as "taking it down." STRIKING a sail is taking it down, to reef a sail is to make it smaller (usually in poor weather). As a Naval officer he should know the difference even if he sailed a submarine not a sailing ship.