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A review by jane_henningsen
1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies
3.0
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 :)