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

3.0

Very readable and fun, especially for those interested in Chinese history. China most definitely had the capacity to do all Menzies claims - the rate of their technological advancements compared to their European contemporaries, until isolation, shows considerable disparities. As soon as it diverges from the proven history though, the book becomes a little too far-fetched for my taste. Perhaps it would have worked better as an intentional alternate history/what-if scenario rather than a weakly-supported theory.

Despite the widespread skepticism, it does make me eagerly anticipate new potential discoveries, such as shipwrecks from Zheng He's fleet, and how those might further shape our understanding of China's unrivaled power, at least spanning East Asia, that extended all the way to the end of the Ming Dynasty.