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From Publishers Weekly
In Menzies's 1421, the amateur historian advanced a highly controversial hypothesis, that the Chinese discovered America; in this follow-up, he credits the Renaissance not to classical Greek and Roman ideals (a "Eurocentric view of history") but again to the Chinese. His thesis in both works is based on the seven (historically undisputed) voyages undertaken by a large Chinese sailing fleet between 1405 and 1433; while it is known that they traveled as far as east Africa, Menzies believes that they landed in Italy and sent a delegation to the Council of Venice, held in Florence in 1439. There, they provided the knowledge and technique-introducing the painter Alberti, for instance, to the methods of perspective drawing-that sparked the Renaissance. Menzies sets the stage by recapitulating arguments from his first book, including the ingenious method for calculating longitude that Chinese navigators may have used. Though Menzies writes engagingly, his assumption that the Chinese fleet landed a delegation in Florence is highly speculative, and hardly substantiated by any facts (Alberti could just have easily learned perspective from classical sources; the Greeks knew about the relationship between perception of length and distance in the 1st Century BCE).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
The brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434, China—then the world's most technologically advanced civilization—provided the spark that set the European Renaissance ablaze. From that date onward, Europeans embraced Chinese ideas, discoveries, and inventions, all of which form the basis of Western civilization today.
The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 combines a long-overdue historical reexamination with the excitement of an investigative adventure, bringing the reader aboard the remarkable Chinese fleet as it sails from China to Cairo and Florence, and then back across the world. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 will change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fanciful and sloppy,
By
This review is from: 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (Paperback)
Fanciful is the best way to describe this book. Menzies weaves a tale of extensive travel by early Chinese explorers, and the transfer to Europeans of geographical knowledge of the Earth and an assortment of technological inventions. Much of it is his own invention and supposition.I found it hard to keep track of all the people and the time scale of events as these are not presented as one story. It is occasionally sloppy. Here are some examples. There is a chapter on a canal between the Red Sea and Cairo, along which he supposes the Chinese fleet traveled. Menzies says the canal ends 'about 6 kilometres north of Suez'; if so the shortest distance is about 120 km. Digging such a canal would have been a massive undertaking and Menzies refers to some literature to convince the reader of its existence, yet does not properly document the sources. He says he traveled the canal from Cairo to Zagazig, which seems to be in the wrong direction. He really should have provided a map. On page 263 he describes the finding of a wreck, using a magnetometer, of a '.. seven-masted wooden ship broken in half lying on its side, listed about twenty degrees to port under twenty to forty feet of sand ..'. I am a physicist with some experience using a magnetometer, even to search for a ship buried in sand, and I can say that one simply cannot obtain that kind of detail using a magnetometer. Menzies describes a number of comparisons of Chinese and European drawings of technological inventions and deduces that the Europeans copied from the Chinese. A few of these are illustrated. The argument is not compelling and most are sufficiently dissimilar that I would argue that they are evidence that the Europeans did not copy the Chinese. And then there are in New Zealand '.. Wrecked junks impaled upside down high on the cliffs of South Island.' Really? Why are there no photographs? Read this book as historical fiction which may have some grains of truth, and you may enjoy it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A sloppy, anecdotal marketing tool,
This review is from: 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (Paperback)
Although I really wanted to like Gavin Menzies book, the previous reviewer is absolutely correct about the inaccuracies and suppositions that have been made. Moreover, I would like to point out that often times Menzies, instead of presenting the evidence or providing an accurate footnote, refers the reader to the book's website. He also goes into long rants about his personal experiences, which always makes me leery when reading someone's account of history. Finally, he spends an inordinate amount of time praising different scholars directly in the text, rather than saving it for a footnote or an acknowledgements section--in itself the acknowledgements is an entire chapter. Historical embellishments aside, all these other digressions from the point make this book quite simply a chore to read.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Links between China and Renaissance,
By
This review is from: 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (Paperback)
Great for anybody who likes history. One of the most interesting book I've read for years. Would have been a 5 if it was not for some slack in the organization of the text which is not perfect. There are some repeats and the presentation seems at times random.Still, it is a book that opens mind, review history, and above all, ask questions, many questions. The most important is not who is exactly right but the questions to be raised. The first book was better organized but it still a great pleasure to go through this book.
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