Rating: 
Summary: Incredible book. Incredible work from Gavin Menzies
Review: This book is pretty long and so full of all kinds of facts and very well thought out ideas. It took me a couple of weeks to finish it.
But this is a book that everyone should read. It is so clear, so convincing. There is really no arguing with it.
Someone should make a new movie about 1492, and a whole series about 1421-1423. It makes more sense now that Columbus thought that he had reached China, or Chinese territory. There were Chinese artifacts there, and he had heard reports of Chinese ships coming across the Atlantic from the area of the Grand Banks.
Can't go into it all here. Just an amazing book of amazing work. Goes to show that dedicated amateur historians can outclass professional historians if they have the discipline and energy.
Just amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, But . . .
Review: This is an intriguing exercise in speculative history. Gavin Menzies, a throwback to the days of the Victorian amateur historian, has produced a massive work of speculation and imagination. In brief, the former Royal Navy submarine commander believes that the Ming treasure ship voyages of the 1420s went much further than the African, Indian, and Middle Eastern ports they are supposed to have visited. Menzies claims evidence that Admiral Zheng He and his fellow eunuch admirals explored most of the world, in the process creating maps that were the basis for the later explorations of Columbus, Da Gama, and other Europeans.I enjoyed this book. Menzies' enthusiasm is contagious, and I especially enjoyed his reminiscences of his own submarine visits to some of the ports he claims the Chinese visited. But in the cold light of day, I have to say that his theory isn't supported. Time after time he makes bold statements, then has to say that he was refused permission to make the final tests that would prove his ideas, or that the data wasn't ready in time for the hard cover edition, or that more information is to be published on his website. Well, why didn't he delay the book a year or so in order to get the proof he claims he has included? Another problem I have is Menzies' claim that all of this Chinese exploration took place in just a few years time in the 1420s. Frankly, I think his theory would be much stronger if he had claimed some sort of long term Chinese sea exploration project. Finally, in all this travelling around that the treasure ships are supposed to have done, why didn't any visit Europe? It seems awfully careless of Admiral Zheng He (who was a truly redoubtable fellow, read Louise Levathes' When China Ruled The Seas for more material on him)to have neglected to visit a continent with a significant number of literate, urbanized areas ripe for trade. (The Chinese knew where Europe was, they hade been in contact for fifteen hundred years or so.) So, I have a very positive impression of Gavin Menzies and I appreciate his enthusiasm and his certainty, however I can only recommend 1421 as an engaging and entertaining work of speculation.
Rating:
Summary: A Provocative Study
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in the past few years. I say that because it dares (much like Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel_) to ask big history questions and challenge assumptions that many academic historians fear to address. That's been one of the reasons behind the backlash of criticism of this book from academic circles. Certainly there are questionable, even doubtful, assertions made at times in this book. But simply to ask "what if the Chinese discovered Africa, Europe and the Americas in the 1400s?" and then to be able to back it with many examples from such diverse areas of study as shipwrecks, stone monuments, DNA, and samples of chicken and vegetable species, not to mention oral traditions, is an admirable task.
Menzies is able to lure the open minded and even skeptical reader into his argument by carefully explaining his train of thought as he studied old maps and sea charts, while arranging the book in geographic order. Once we accept his evidence for the Chinese rounding the Cape of Good Hope, he lures us into his research on Atlantic islands and then the Americas. He does so in a comfortable writing style that easily makes this a page-turner.
It is fascinating to read how someone who begins research on such a wide-ranging topic begins to encounter unforseen links between seemingly trivial bits of archaeological, genetic, and oral information. There are fascinating details like the Chinese bringing coconuts to Ecuador and roses to California, as well as the revelation of Chinese wrecks in San Francisco harbor. Finally, his updates in the paperback edition and his use of a web site for keeping readers appraised of new information demonstrates his infectious enthusiasm for this ambitious undertaking. I recommend that people check out _When China Ruled the Seas_ (particularly helpful for its wider chronological scope and illustrations of the boats). Find out more about the Chinese attack on Greenland (!) and secret maps of Europeans when you read this fun book.
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