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

1.0

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.