A review by annakmeyer
1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies

2.0

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.