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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Fascinating start when we’re still grounded in the history of China, that then leads to a lot of conjecture that seems unlikely. Wasn’t able to stay engaged at that point and put it down.
Before you read this book, Google the topic and make sure you read some of the stuff from historians who claim this book is a sham and completely unsubstantiated. Then you can decide if you want to ready it. It is quite a spectacular and controversial claim to say the Chinese sailed the whole world before any of the Europeans did. It was harder to get through because of the writing style. The first 100 pages or so were not too bad but then the author just keeps repeating the same claims over and over again without really providing much evidence. When you get something so controversial like this book, it is a good bet that neither of the extreme views is correct with the truth somewhere in the middle.
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Not sure I believe Menzies thesis, but it this was a terrific read.
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This pretty much sums up 1421. I have no problem with the premise that Chinese navigators traveled to all sorts of places. But to Menzies, EVERYTHING is evidence that the Chinese were there (although some of it was conveniently destroyed or is not accessible). A bit much.
I actually hope that this book is true, that the Chinese mapped the entire world in 1421. I'm giving it two stars because of the writing style. Constantly being referred to his website was so aggravating. And the reasoning/proof of his theses was circular, so by the end I wasn't even sure if anything had been proven at all. I felt like I was reading one of the papers I wrote so many of in college, where I just kind of made it up as I was going along. The existence of certain maps would prove that the Chinese saw native animals, and the native animals would prove that the Chinese made the maps. I'm inclined to believe his ultimate conclusion, but it's an awfully long book about nothing that leads him to it.
On the one hand, this book is kind of a game changer. I don’t doubt that his overall hypothesis is true. It seems undeniable that the Chinese explored the Americas and most other parts of the world long before the European explorers who receive credit.
We get all kinds of evidence - the spread of Chinese plant and animal species to the new world prior to European discovery, DNA evidence of relatively recent Chinese ancestry in some Native American populations, the fact that Columbus et al already had maps of the new world, etc etc. Loads of evidence.
The issue that I have is that the author adds in some dubious claims along with the strong ones, which undermines the book’s credibility. Wouldn’t his case have been strong enough without him claiming that a tower in Rhode Island was probably built by the Chinese, when a quick google search shows that most scholars disagree and carbon dating makes the theory seem iffy at best? (That’s one example, I’m not all hung up on just the tower thing.) I’m not sure what’s real and what’s questionable, and I’m not going to take time to validate the whole book. I’m sure most of it is backed up by evidence and I read this for fun vs for a history class. Unfortunately the seed of doubt takes away some of the wonder and fun.
Still a pretty interesting read though! Also, if you want a quick rundown of the evidence, save some time and just read the appendix :)
We get all kinds of evidence - the spread of Chinese plant and animal species to the new world prior to European discovery, DNA evidence of relatively recent Chinese ancestry in some Native American populations, the fact that Columbus et al already had maps of the new world, etc etc. Loads of evidence.
The issue that I have is that the author adds in some dubious claims along with the strong ones, which undermines the book’s credibility. Wouldn’t his case have been strong enough without him claiming that a tower in Rhode Island was probably built by the Chinese, when a quick google search shows that most scholars disagree and carbon dating makes the theory seem iffy at best? (That’s one example, I’m not all hung up on just the tower thing.) I’m not sure what’s real and what’s questionable, and I’m not going to take time to validate the whole book. I’m sure most of it is backed up by evidence and I read this for fun vs for a history class. Unfortunately the seed of doubt takes away some of the wonder and fun.
Still a pretty interesting read though! Also, if you want a quick rundown of the evidence, save some time and just read the appendix :)