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1421 : " The Year China Discovered the World "
 
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1421 : " The Year China Discovered the World " (Paperback)

by Gavin Menzies (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Frequently Bought Together

1421 : " The Year China Discovered the World " + 1434: The Year a Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance + 1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)
Price For All Three: £22.54

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Product details

  • Paperback: 650 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Books; Bantam New Edition edition (1 Mar 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0553815229
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553815221
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 4.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 17,791 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #9 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > China
    #12 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > East Asia
    #13 in  Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Discovery & Exploration

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

If you're going to make a stir, you might as well do it in style. And Gavin Menzies has caused one, big time. In 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, this retired Royal Navy submarine commander, who only visited China for the first time on his 25th wedding anniversary, claims that the Chinese navigator Zheng He discovered America some 71 years before Columbus. And not content with this, he goes on to suggest that Zheng He learnt how to calculate longitude several centuries before John Harrison supposedly nailed the problem. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down too well in some areas and the book has been the target of some scepticism.

Although Menzies has unearthed a few unknown primary sources, the bulk of his thesis depends on amalgamating several disparate areas of research into a grand unified theory. So he combines what we do know--principally that the Chinese built huge sailing ships with nine masts and that Asiatic chickens were discovered in South America--into what he considers compelling evidence. Menzies has also turned up some maps from the pre-Columbus era that appear to show the Americas, along with a few shipwrecks and Ming artefacts from along his supposed route.

It all makes for a gripping read, even if the sum doesn't quite add up to the whole. For all the detail, Menzies is some way off providing proof. None of the supposed 28,000 colonists has left any documentary evidence because all records, boats and shipyards associated with his voyage were burnt by imperial order in 1433. This surely begs the question--if we know so much of Zheng He's voyages around the Indian Ocean, how come we know nothing of his trips further east? Nor, conveniently for Menzies, did any of the colonists return home in triumph. They either died en route or skulked home to obscurity after they were disowned by the emperor.

So you either accept Menzies as an act of faith or brush him aside with scepticism. Either way, you'll have a lot of fun in the process as the book is never less than provocative. And even the sceptics will find themselves hoping Menzies has got it right, because there's something intrinsically uplifting about the notion of an amateur historian getting one over the professionals. --John Crace --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



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Customer Reviews

61 Reviews
5 star:
 (20)
4 star:
 (16)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (4)
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 (16)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
By T. R. Alexander (East Anglia, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars The medieval Chinese had the bomb!, 25 Oct 2007
By Martin Whitehouse (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Not bad as cartographic history and the main thesis is certainly intriguing, despite some tenuous evidence. Unfortunately this book really loses the plot when it reaches the purported voyage around north Greenland. First we are told that the north pole was much closer in 1421 and the Chinese may well have got there centuries before westerners, but the book is (deliberately?) vague about just which "pole". The goal of modern explorers has almost invariably been the geographic north pole which is in the same place now as it was in 1421; the celestial north pole does precess but not much, while the magnetic north pole shifts a lot. As a former submariner the author really should be more careful. But there's worse, much worse, to come. We are told that strontium 90 in ice cores reveals a warmer climate at the time. RUBBISH! - strontium 90 is an entirely man-made isotope of strontium that first entered into the environment via atomic bomb tests in the 1940's. Of course this "evidence" fails the first hurdle of scientific credibility because there is simply no reference to its source, either in the book or on the 1421 web-site. If strontium 90 is indeed found in those ice cores only two conclusions are possible - either the ice core dating is wrong or somebody in 1421 had the atom bomb! Mr Menzies would no doubt choose the latter !
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71 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars History rewritten - an excellent read, 21 Nov 2002
By Mavv (Todmorden, W. Yorkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
In this outstanding book, retired submarine captain Gavin Menzies rewrites history and takes us on an epic adventure around the world in the company of huge Chinese fleets carrying soldiers, craftsmen and concubines.

Using a mixture of medieval maps and manuscripts, an in-depth and practical maritime knowledge, botanical evidence and sound reasoning, Menzies puts forward his theory that China, not Europe, discovered America, Australia, and the rest of the world - decades before Europeans set sail for distant seas.

In a rich and descriptive style, Menzies tells of the lives of the Emperor Zhu Di, who ordered the voyages of exploration, and of Admiral Zheng He, his friend and chief eunuch. He goes on to describes the huge treasure fleets and tracks their course across the face of the globe. At each landfall, Menzies gives evidence of the Chinese presence, delving into the folklore of the area's inhabitants and noting the presence of Asian plants and chickens far from China's shores, predating the first Europeans.

This book is a must for anyone interested in keeping up to date with the most recent historical discoveries. In one fell swoop, Menzies has turned the old idea that Europeans first discovered America and circumnavigated the globe on its head. The history books will have to re-written!

1421 is written in an enjoyable style and the author's modesty about his groundbreaking work makes the reader warm to him immediately. Not only are the journeys of the Chinese ships recounted but also the author's own travels in their wake, as he flies around the world seeking evidence of the voyages and advice from a number of experts. This gives the book a double flavour of adventure that makes it hard to put down. An interesting and well-written read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars 1421 year china discovered the world
A fascinating story and totally credible due to the amount of research the author has obviously done. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. J. A. Hobson

5.0 out of 5 stars Long held myths shattered for good and all!
This book is a sensation. What it does is to shatter all our childhood understandings about who the really great explorers were. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. H. S. Arloff

1.0 out of 5 stars Clearly rubbish, but also REALLY BORING
The evidence for his lack of evidence, in particular how he simply made bits of it up has already been clearly documented. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Edmund A. Bloxam

1.0 out of 5 stars Inconsistent and deeply flawed
The central argument in this book is that huge Chinese fleets charted pretty much the whole world in 1421-3, and their maps guided the European explorers, from Columbus to Cook... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Braga

5.0 out of 5 stars 1421 & 1434 Inspiring work.
They read like some fantastic detective story, because thats what this is all about. Its trying to piece together the unexplained origins of the maps, which pre-date the people... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Brian Steven

1.0 out of 5 stars From the Dan Brown school of history
OK, I was dumb to buy this book spontaneously. A few minutes of research on the web would have revealed that it's been thoroughly discredited as a work of historical resarch... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Taka

5.0 out of 5 stars china
excellent purchase + vfm
great service + speed
very good read as well
Published 6 months ago by Dennis Legge

1.0 out of 5 stars read Nigel Rees instead
I bought this because I enjoy daydreaming about pre-Columbian contact between the old and new worlds, just as I'm a sucker for cryptozoology (you can enjoy that stuff without... Read more
Published 6 months ago by bookworm

2.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but totally unbelieveable
As with so many books of this kind, Menzies' saga begins plausibly enough, rooted in real history. As it continues, it becomes gradually more incredible. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Trimalchio

1.0 out of 5 stars Overlong and under-researched
This book is probably one of the worst I have ever read.

The premise of the book is that the Chinese discovered the new world before European explorere did. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Milton

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