1421 is one of the best written histories I have ever read. He has the factual material to back up his thesis. It certainly provides one with a whole new perspective on New World history.

1421 started a little slow for me, but quickly gained momentum. There is a lot of detail, but the inferences drawn (and many of the facts presented) are absolutely facinating. I believe this is a must read for anyone interested in world history. The author asks and answers the question: why have historians ignored this information up to this time when there is so much that is contrary to accepted beliefs?

I live near the District of Columbia, where there is a large marble fountain commemorating Christopher Columbus. Columbus Day is a federal holiday. All of these things venerate a man who pioneered nothing. Columbus has had 500 years of fantastic P.R.

Menzies has done an excellent job compiling evidence that leads to the conclusion that China navigated to, landed on, charted, and possibly colonized the New World long before Europeans even knew there was a New World. This book challenges the assumptions we take for granted about our own history. Contrary to what some reviewers are saying, Menzies' theory is neither whacky nor half-baked. He seriously attempts to answer questions that have been left unanswered for too long. While some of the evidence is stronger than others, taken on the whole, the argument is compelling and worthy of serious consideration by not just the general public but also academics. The history establishment really dropped the ball on this one, leaving it to a retired submarine commander to publish the theory.

Many other reviewers have correctly criticized his methods and some of his conclusions. (I specifically find his evidence based on plants and animals to be extremely thin. The mylodon has been extinct for 10,000 years.) However, it does not undermine the fact that we are stuck in a Eurocentric view of the age of discovery. Even if only half of what Menzies documents turns out to be true, we will need to seriously reconsider the conventional historical timeline.

It is time to dispose of the myth of Christopher Columbus "discovering" America. "Brave and determined though they were," says Menzies, "Columbus,...Magellan, Cook and the rest of the European explorers set sail with maps showing the way to their destinations." Maps, Menzies cliams, drawn from information gathered by the Chinese. Real history usually turns out to be the cumulative effort of the many rather than the heroic effort of the one. And convenient as the Columbus story is, it is a fable posing as history. I for one find the idea of hundreds of ships carrying thousands of men making discoveries more believable than one man leading three little boats into the supposedly unknown.

Menzies is a navigator, so he knows maps. You have to give him credit for what he does know, rather than bash him for what he doesn't.

Very interesting book. well written and keeps your attention.
A great book, didn't realize that the Chinese were so good at navigating and charting maps.

This was an easy read - the author is indeed good at his craft. However, it is not factual and yet portrays itself as such. I could have rated this higher if the books admitted that the outlandish ideas presented are speculation. Everything, though, is presented as facts. This is misleading, and has caused many readers to misinterpret wishful theory as historical fact.

This book is a fascinating and heavily documented history of Chinese exploration of the world in the 15th Century. I highly recommend it.

The only valid reviews possible for this book must be done by academics who spend their professional lives delving into the primary sources cited in a history book.

This book is fantasy history. It takes a true historical set of events, well-documented in and of themselves, and then extends it into fantasy using 'sources' that have been found, if you do your investigation like a number of academics have, to be either complete misinterpretations or unsubstantiating evidence.

Mr. Menzies is not a serious historian. He is either deluded or paid to spread delusions. That so many others have followed in spreading this dishonest and intellectually offensive as history is both an insult to historians and probably also a sorry reminder that the general public will eat anything as long as it is sweet and exotic.

The book itself is very interesting. I actually read 1434 first and loved it. Proposes some very interesting theories about the capabilities of Asians during the Ming Dynasty. I had to go back and read the 1421 to continue the saga. Service from this vendor was excellent as well. I got the book in three days and it was in excellent condition.

hasn't this theory been totally discredited by historians? The books own "facts" don't even hold together and are contradictory. According to an account on NPR, at least one of the maps has been revealed to be a fraud created expressly for the book and another is believed to have been created more that 100 years after the author suggests not but Chinese but by Jesuits and later doctored to add Chinese characters and eliminate the original Western language and references.

I grew up in North China and lived in South China, in Chang Le, the departure point for the Ming Dynasty treasure ships, from 1947 to 1949. But I heard nothing about Admiral Zheng He until Gavin Menzies enlightened me with his revelations. His books are delightful, introducing us to an achievement of the Ming Dynasty that a subsequent emperor stopped cold and tried to erase from history. I wish I had known about all this when I was living in Chang Le.

Great, alternative perspective on new world discovery ad travel. Must read! Decide for yourself.

This book made sense of our misguided world history.... a life changing book for me.

I won't say much, because most of the negative reviews are right on. As a History major and one interested in things of this sort, I believe I can provide a good review. This book is absolutely absurd. He makes his claims based on speculations, false evidence, and speculates some more. He uses a fake map to present his claims, he talks of statues erected in Africa (not America), and he says he knows about these things because he was a military sub person. WHAT?! All in all, I would say stay away from this book. Don't waste your time. If you are interested in nonwestern or Asian exploration and discovery, there are plenty of scholarly works out there: When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433 by Levathes,The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands by Leo Shin, and The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty by Henry Shih-shan Tsai to name a few. Just please, stay away from THIS junk!!!!!!!!

As has been noted by many reviewers and commentaters Menzie's book is full of fabrications and falsehoods. It would be time consuming to go through all of them and the intelligent reader can easily discern them. In fact it is an insult to the serios student of history. One of the more ridiculous assertions he makes, for instance, is on page 248 where he refers to all the Pre-Colombian advanced cultures of Mexico as Maya. One could go on and on. Fortunately I did not purchase this but was given to me by someone who had lost a book which I had lent her (a good book incidently). After "reading" it I cut out the photos (good by the way) and trashed it, as I would have been ashamed if anyone had seen it in my library. I do not understand Mr.Menzies point in writing this book, is it to seek fame late in life, to make money or is he overly obsessed with Chinese culture? I can't help respecting him as he is a retired naval officer and I'm a retired mrchantman. I'm an ardent student of all history, esp. that of travel and exploration of which Amazon has a great selection!. Paul Dukel, San Jose, Costa Rica

Having read Charles Hapgood's Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, I was fully prepared to accept Menzies' thesis that the Chinese discovered America in 1421. However, his "evidence" is not evidence at all, but speculation. Not only is his thesis unsupported, but his research methods are unethical, his reasoning faulty, his thinking muddled, and his prose dull. The Chinese may have discovered America, but Menzies doesn't prove it.

The book arrived on time.
Great book. Will change the way history in the future will be taught in our schools.

This is by far the worst book I have ever tried to read. The author starts from a good argument and then gets lost in interpreting any fact as an evidence in favor of his point of view, even when there would be thousands of more plausible explanations. I apologize for not being specific, but I think I have already lost too much of my time and patience trying to read this thing. However, if you are the kind of reader who likes UFOs and conspirations stories, go ahead, maybe you will enjoy this book.

Zhu Di was the fourth son of Zhu YuanZhang. Zhu Di rose to power from a peasant to an emperor through the help of the Enunuch Lord, Zheng He. The Mongols ruled China since 1279 under Kublai Khan. In 1382, China defeated the Mongols at Kun Ming. The Mongol prisoners were mutilated into Eunuchs. The Eunuchs were the hidden power of the Empire and Zhu Di tapped into this hidden reserve to capture the empire. Zheng He original name was Ma He. Ma He was a captured Mongol prisoner. Ma He changed his name to Zheng He and became a Muslim.

Zhu Di rise to power began after becoming the Prince of Yen. Zhu Di moved the place from NanJing to Ta-Tu or Bejing in 1387, after 30 years fighting with the Mongols. Zhu Yunwen become Emperor after Hong Wu death and sought to kill Zhu Di suspecting him to be a Mongol. Zhu Di disquises himself and goes into hiding as a vagrant living as a begger. Zhu-Di turns to Zheng He and Zheng He gather forces, 800 men from the Eunuch reserve, fight battles against the Emperors forces and win. Zhu Yuawen is angered and sought to destroy the rebellion. Zhu Yuawen sends a half a million men to destroy Zhu-Di rebellion. The season is wrong, winter is approaching, the men were not clothed for the cold and most freeze to death. In 1402, Zhu Di marches South on Nanjing and the Eunuchs throw open the gates and Zhu Di seizes the Dragon throne.

Zhu Di created a Maritime Empire. The Armada was composed of 250 treasure ships, a total of 3,500 vessels, 1,350 patrol vessels, 400 freighters for hauling grain and other commodities. The Maritime Empire was a tribute system. The tribute system gave foreign countries the right to visit Beijing. Zhu Di foreign policy was to pursue by trade alliances and provide firepower to protect the friendly countries and firepower to quash insurrections. Zheng He set into sequence the voyage to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas and bring civilization under Confucian Harmony.

Zhu Di local ambitions included replace of the Great Wall and repairing the Grand Canal and the Yong-Le-Dadian. Over 300,000 men were allocated to clean and repair the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was needed to bring grain to Beijing to feed the large armies and other workers. The importing of grain to Beijing caused food shortages through China. The Grand Canal was a 1,800 kilometers long channel for North and South commerce. The Yong-Le-Dadian was 4,000 volumes and used over 2,800 scholars to compose a 50 million character encyclopedia of Chinese commerce throughout the world.

Zheng He trade ships were 480 feet in length and 180 feet across with red silk sails, 16 internal water-tight compartments, 36 foot rudder. The freight ships were capable of hauling 20,000 tons of cargo. The Armada had over 30,000 men. Zheng He created a language school in 1407 called Si Yi Guan which produced 16 language intrepretors; languages included: African, Arabic, Indian, Persian, Swahili, Hindi, and Tail.

Zhu Di sent an army to crush the rebellion in Vietnam. The Vienamese were required to read Chinese Classics but abandoned the policy in 1428. The rebellion started when Qui Ly, in 1404 usurp the throne. Qui Ly simplified taxation, introduced a health care system, restrict land acquisition at the expense of the peasant, and created a national entity. Le Loi continued the war after Qui Ly and gained independence from China in 1428.

Zhu Di, son is Zhu Guozhi. Arughtai, the Mongol refuses to pay tribute and Zhu Di sends a million men to Steppe, but tribute is not paid. Zhu Di dies in 1424. Zhu Ghozhi reverse his fathers foreign policies and destroys all the Journals of Zheng He travels.

Fra Mauro (1385-1459) had a chart that showed the shorelines of Africa and the tip of Africa. Fra Mauro acquired the map from Nicholas Da Conti. Da Conti's map was created during his voyage on Chinese Junks. The Chinese Junk had 4 masts, rounded bow, and 40-60 cabins for merchants. Mauro sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and followed the African West shore and then at a key location crossed the ocean riding water currents to South America. The Cape Horn crossing would have occurred Aug 1421 and used a Southerly wind direction at 6.25 knots ands in 3 weeks moved around the Cape.

How did Mauro navigate the water currents too South America? The voyage to South America would be 3,000 miles follow a counter clockwise flow of water current between the continents. The Chinese Junk could have followed the water current to South America then followed it back to Africa. The Chinese Junk would have followed the following path: Beijing, Malacca, Sumedra, Dendra Head, Calicut (India), Malindi, and Sofala. From Sofala, the Junk turns and cross the ocean for 1,600 miles to South America.

The Kangnido is a Chinese/Korean Chart created in 1403 presented by Korea to Zhu Di. The Chart showed the position and place of Africa, Europe, Asia, Korea, and China. The Chinese had charted Africa as they navigated around Cape Good Hope. The Chinese had maps of Africa, 40 years before the Europeans.

The Chinese ship design had reinforced bow, a teak keel bound together with iron loops running the length of the ship. The ship had submersible anchors to reduce roll. The ship could remain a float even if two compartments were flooded. The ship had four mast sails made of strong red silk. The sails were four sided. The ship had one medical officer for 150 men.

The food on the ship included soyabean that could be soaked in fresh water tubs providing vitamin C, wheat, millet, and rice. Soy Milk, Tofu, and Soy sauce were a source of Vitamin D. Fruits such as Limes, Lemons, Oranges, coconuts, and Pomelo were stored. Fresh fish, salted fish, and dried fish were stored on ship. Arsenic was used to kill bugs and insects.

What was Admiral Zheng He fleet?

1. Fleet included 62 treasure ships

2. Each treasure ship had nine masts with a length of 416 feet and 170 feet wide.

3. The fleet was manned by 27,00 crew members

4. Each treasure ship carried 1,000 passengers and manned 5000 sailors?

Where did the Treasure Junks Sail?

1. Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand

2. The trade routes span from India to East Africa, Korea and Japan; and possibly to Australia.

What were the seven voyages of Zheng He

1st Voyage 1405-1407 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Kollam, Cochin, Calicut

2nd Voyage 1407-1409 Champa, Java, Siam, Cochin, Ceylon

3rd Voyage 1409-1411 Champa, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Quilon, Cochin, Calicut, Siam, Lambri, Kaya, Coimbatore, Puttanpur

4th Voyage 1413-1415 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Cochin, Calicut, Kayal, Pahang, Kelantan, Aru, Lambri, Hormuz, Maldives, Mogadishu, Barawa, Malindi, Aden, Muscat, Dhufar

5th Voyage 1416-1419 Champa, Pahang, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Sharwayn, Cochin, Calicut, Hormuz, Maldives, Mogadishu, Barawa, Malindi, Aden

6th Voyage 1421-1422 Hormuz, East Africa, countries of the Arabian Peninsula

7th Voyage 1430-1433 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Calicut, Hormuz... (17 states in total)

What did Zheng He traded for in the Middle East?

Sulfer,Timber,Drugs,Spices such as cloves,Copper ore,Precious Stones,Ostriches,Zebras,Giraffes

What was Admiral Zheng He fleet?

1. Fleet included 62 treasure ships

2. Each treasure ship had nine masts with a length of 416 feet and 170 feet wide.

3. The fleet was manned by 27,00 crew members

4. Each treasure ship carried 1,000 passengers and manned 5000 sailors?

Where did the Treasure Junks Sail?

1. Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand

2. The trade routes span from India to East Africa, Korea and Japan; and possibly to Australia.

What were the seven voyages of Zheng He

1st Voyage 1405-1407 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Aru, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Kollam, Cochin, Calicut

2nd Voyage 1407-1409 Champa, Java, Siam, Cochin, Ceylon

3rd Voyage 1409-1411 Champa, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Quilon, Cochin, Calicut, Siam, Lambri, Kaya, Coimbatore, Puttanpur

4th Voyage 1413-1415 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Cochin, Calicut, Kayal, Pahang, Kelantan, Aru, Lambri, Hormuz, Maldives, Mogadishu, Barawa, Malindi, Aden, Muscat, Dhufar

5th Voyage 1416-1419 Champa, Pahang, Java, Malacca, Sumatra, Lambri, Ceylon, Sharwayn, Cochin, Calicut, Hormuz, Maldives, Mogadishu, Barawa, Malindi, Aden

6th Voyage 1421-1422 Hormuz, East Africa, countries of the Arabian Peninsula

7th Voyage 1430-1433 Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Calicut, Hormuz... (17 states in total)

What did Zheng He traded for in the Middle East?

Sulfer

Timber

Drugs

Spices such as cloves

Copper ore

Precious Stones

Ostriches

Zebras

Giraffes

Menzies advances a startling and truly earth shattering proposition: that not only did the Chinese discover America before Columbus, but they discovered the rest of the world - Antarctica, Australia - charted it, sailed to or near the poles, and figured out longitude. And they not only brought Chinese artifacts, animals and plants to the New World, they brought American ones back to Southeast Asia and China itself.

Menzies isn't the only person working on this, and apparently the field has gotten a lot bolder the last few years, with a number of scholars, particularly but not only Chinese ones, marshalling the evidence.

It's a huge undertaking, the rewriting of world history, and it properly should take a while. Any page in this book might properly occupy a scholar for a year in nailing down the facts, verifying the information, and mulling it through in light of the huge chain of events that Menzies proposes.

He's not starting from a blank slate: the Zheng He voyages and Chinese technological prowess of the time are historical fact, as is China's xenophobic reaction destroying all traces of them a few years later. The debate is where Zheng He's enormous fleet went, why and what they left behind. Menzies puts the ball squarely in the critics' court; he has given too much evidence to have it blithely dismissed.

Menzies himself says his book would properly have been several times as long if he'd written in the accepted scholarly fashion, and you can see that's true. Often you want more underpinnings of everything he says. Is this fact true? Is it accepted? Who accepts it? Who doesn't, and why?

But he can't be found guilty of facile treatment of all this. His work on the map and navigation side of this - his strong suit as a former mariner who navigated by the stars in the days before GPS - is truly stunning. He reasons through the anomalies on old European maps - ones apparently showing the Americas, the Cape of Good Hope, the coast of Africa or the Caribbean islands before Europeans arrived at these places, or could have mapped them in such detail. And projecting the Chinese fleet's reach to so many places, including up rivers deep into continents' hearts, he goes about searching for evidence of their presence, and finds a lot of it. Much of it remains to be better examined than he could here; actually, the amount of information and worldwide sweep of this is remarkable as it is.

This turns out notion of the world's history upside down. He suggests the Chinese are ethnic ancestors of various Indian tribes and helped spread flora and fauna around the world. He suggests Magellan and Columbus knew where they were going because they were following Chinese-derived maps. But Menzies' work is interesting in yet another, ultramodern way. This book's ongoing work is being done on the Internet, as thousands of emails solicited by Menzies asking for useful information have poured in. Much of it won't pan out, but some probably will.

If this theory becomes accepted fact, historians may have to answer for why so many unusual facts went so unexamined for so long. Reports of Chinese people and Chinese settlements in the Americas, the presence of Chinese-speaking Indians, remains and other evidence of horses - who died out here 10,000 years ago but then were found here by the Europeans - and unusual ruins that couldn't be attributed to native populations, like the Bimini Road or the Round Tower in Newport, R.I. Were historians asleep at the wheel?

I do dread the use of this in the PC wars as yet another tool with which to bash dead European white males, but no matter. If it's the truth, so be it. And the dead European white males put a lot on the line to rediscover a world that the Chinese, if they discovered it in fact, then turned their backs on.

Really, though, this all ought to be the subject of years of examination before people come down on one side of it or the other. Some of the shipwrecks Menzies mentions ought to be more heavily examined. Botanists and zoologists need to weigh in on his observations about plants and animals found, early, on the wrong side of oceans. Historians expert in one or another aspect of pre-Columbian history, as well as the Age of Exploration and Chinese history, ought to give this some serious thought. They will attack this, as they should, but they shouldn't reject it out of hand.

Though I had heard this book was "controversial", I hadn't researched any feedback prior to deciding to buy it 1/2 price at a large bookstore using a coupon. Boy, do I wish I had read the reviews here (or elsewhere) first before wasting my $7. While the author proposes what he thinks might be a new theory of where the Chinese fleets of 1421-1423 could have traveled, and starts out making some partially plausible arguments regarding prevailing ocean currents/winds and how the design of the large Chinese ships of the early 15th century likely forced them to basically follow the prevailing winds/currents, the discourse deteriorates rapidly once the reader reaches the 150 page mark (or thereabouts).

Thereafter, the author, lacking any evidence whatsoever, proposes all sorts of nonsensical "revelations" and "findings" regarding where the Chinese "must" have visited during that 2 year span. At first, he mentions that these visits "could have" happened, then proceeds to claim that he has "proved" that the visits occurred, despite lacking ANY evidence whatsoever!! He then goes on write in a manner that implies that the reader should accept that these fantasmical adventures actually occurred, and that he, the supposedly amazingly insightful author, is responsible for exposing these new "facts".

That these new "facts" are nothing more than products of the author's imagination gone wild doesn't deter his fabricating one bit. He expects us to unquestioningly believe all of his nonsensical fantasizing: Yes, the Chinese CERTAINLY must have passed through the straights of Magellan during that time... Yes, European explorers DID find wrecks of Chinese junks along the Patagonian coast.... And on and on... no sources for these supposed "facts" are cited. No physical evidence is presented. In fact, this is far worse than the very common error of researchers (and the public in general) confusing correlation with causation - this is nothing but complete fantasy/delusion.

The publishers of this "history" book should recall every single copy of this rubbish, issue a public apology for categorizing this as a History book, and refund every purchaser's money in full. DO NOT waste your money on this book. It is not history or science or archaeology or anything even remotely resembling fact-based research. It is pure and utter nonsense.

I bought this book to add to my library. It makes new claim and is controversial.

Gavin Menzies, 1421 is a compelling, thought provoking book that has both its detractors and supporters claiming it to be either fiction or history.
In either catagory I rate this book five stars and prefer to see it as a historical record of the Ambassadors of the Ming Dynansty reaching out to the rest of the world to share knowledge in peace.

Pre-Columbian History is to be expected and time will tell as future discoveries of hard evidence are made to support Menzies book. L'Anse aux Meadows, near St. Vincent in Newfoundland contains hard evidence that you can see and touch of Norsemen in America as early as 999. St. Brendan's, "Navigato," records his voyage to Newfoundland as early as 530. Tim Severin retraced the adventures of St. Brendan in a simular craft to determine the feasabliity of St, Brendan's historic event.

Certainly 1421 deserves its place among the Pre-Columbian events.

Regardless of the controversy of the book, I found this book to be a delightful read, introducing many insights into Chinese society, history, and innovation, which is extremely profound during its time, especially when compared to Western Europe. Menzies was able to explore and explain some rather complex and intricate details about China in a colorful and enjoyable read. This helped me understand the world in the past around Ming dynasty and has sparked my curiosity about East Asia History. Now, I am in Korea, studying the history of the region, and I am understanding the world far better than I could in my limited hometown in America.

Despite rather excellent writing, one should be careful in reviewing the information to get a more accurate portrayal of history. Given that Menzies is a Sinophile, in other words he is an admirer of Chinese culture and history, I felt that in at least one incident, history was repainted, in regards to Japanese kow-towing to the Emperor, implying that Japanese accept their sub-ordinate role in the Sinocentric system. This is not quite the accurate portrayal as the Japanese shogun at the time, saw this was good for strategic purposes, and was admonished by the royal court in Japan. Though this is probably minor, but one should be cautionary to research further information to be more in depth view of the history that he touches on.

When I first read the book 1421 several years back, I had some doubts about the historical research, etc...but one week ago, the Princess Taiping (Peace), a replica of the Chinese junks from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, sailed into Saipan after being at sea for over a year, including the west coast of America and Hawaii. It is a 54-foot long and 45-foot wide (sails only - no power) wooden/bamboo junk with the same specs as built over 600 years ago. The 10-person volunteer crew is a mixed bag of Chinese and Americans, and they are convinced that they have preserved the sailing traditions and proven that the junks could have done what was stated in 1421. From Saipan, they go to Wake Island, then Okinawa, before making its final journey to Taiwan. A wonderful tradition restored and many of us got to tour the junk with Captain Nin-Sheng Liu's permission and graciousness. Bon voyage!

There are quite a number of conclusory leaps of faith in the book. While it makes for some interesting stories and presents another point of view on history, I would take it all as entertainment and not as a new text book.

Smoothly narrated by the Earphones Award-winning Simon Vance, 1421: The Year China Discovered America is the unabridged audiobook presentation of author Gavin Menzies' astonishing theory - that a Chinese expedition discovered the American continent, planted cropbs, and even established Caribbean colonies seventy years before Columbus, and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Menzies visited 120 countries and over 900 museums and libraries in the course of his research, and has assembled a surprisingly persuasive account that suggests how China's foothold in the American continents could have been established, then lost due to the turmoil following the Emperor's fall. The sturdy library edition of this fascinating audiobook is an excellent addition to collections offering alternative viewpoints and theories concerning world history. 11 CDs, 13 hours, tracks every 3 minutes for easy bookmarking.

This is an excellent book. It is well-researched and very interesting to read. Yet it is also historically eye-opening. So much I was unaware of---

A bit like myself, Gavin Menzies makes the bold claim that history has to be slightly rewritten. In his view the Chinese played a key role a few decades before Columbus -- they sailed round and charted the world well before the Europeans did. The author provides a wealth of details from areas as remote as Australia, North and South America, Antarctica, and so on. Although there are certainly many points of detail which I'm sure will prove wrong if they haven't been already, the overall evidence seems compelling and the journey the reader is taken on is pleasant enough to afford her/him excellent moments. You get out of the book with a sense that, if what mainstream historians do is in general excellent work, conservatism and well-established views, combined to a certain lack of eclecticism, if not lack of courage, might have made them miss obvious connections lying right here in front of their eyes all the time. Highly entertaining, thought-provoking and deadly interesting.

Sylvain Tristan, author of "Les Lignes d'or" ("The Golden Lines"), Paris, Alphée 2005

I read this book without knowing much about Chinese history or the controversies around Zheng He's voyages. However, I found this book a very interesting read, and certainly raised my eyebrows.

Although I do believe that the Chinese did discover some parts of the world before the Europeans as a result of reading this book, I think that to say they circumnavigated the whole world is a bit of a stretch. It does at times seem like Menzies is using his imagination quite a bit. Menzies is certainly very enthusiastic about this project and has gathered a lot of evidence to support his claims. I definitely like some of the arguments he has put forward (some of this thoughts actually match mine). However, other arguments sometimes wasn't as convincing.

In regards to the content of the book, the introduction gave a good background to the events which occurred in the book. His explanations of how people back then navigated around the world (based on stars) was very interesting to me. Menzies attempts to be as accurate as possible with estimated numbers, such as the time taken to travel to places. The maps and illustrations provided were also very useful and interesting.

I would encourage the reader to read this book critically and with an open mind. Afterwards, make up your own mind. You will also find a lot of information about this book if you do a search on the internet.

1421 starts with an idea, worthy of an alternative history series, then looks for anything that might support it.

Menzies treats assumption as fact, interprets sources to support his belief (I can't even call it a theory!), and generally warps his materials. Unfortunately, his book does more to degrade the serious issue of Chinese seamanship - an area of Chinese history that doesn't seem to have much visibility for western readers. China's general aloofness and sometimes closed society makes it easy to assume that there was never such a thing as a Chinese navy. To the contrary, Chinese junks were supremely seaworthy vessels used in an expansive trade during certain periods of Chinese history.

Although the book is basically a good read, I found myself distracted and then disgusted with the author's continuous references to his paramount ability to interpret the possibilities because of his naval experience. Once or twice, okay. Over and over again makes one wonder just how paramount that ability is!

This is an excellent read and historically significant. This changes everything that we learned growing up.
This book is not just fact and dull history. This is record of what and how Gavin Menzies used, found, studied and analyzed to derive the story that unfolds throughout the book.
All too often historians feed us their thoughts or conclusions as fact. Not Gavin Menzies. I feel like I have been a part of his reseach and got to follow and look over his shoulder.

This review adds comments to Menzies' landmark book on how the mediaeval Chinese empire developed ocean-going vessels, geopositioning and mapping systems before the Europeans. The Ming Dynasty developed it at a huge cost overextending itself and ultimately abandoned this effort before triumphantly sheparding the world. Fortunately this legacy was not forgotten in southern China and was secretly perpetuated through Chinese maritime legend and lore.

Recent Sino and Western historians have written a now huge library on why it was Southern China's Guangdong and Fujian's poor and isolated provinces which continued to be the locus of outward-looking vision of the world. This discussion will concentrate on Menzies' American thesis and collaborate modern Chinese topics. The Chinese diaspora originated in Toisan (100 miles west of Canton (Guangzhou) in mid- to late-1800s with the lure of "easy-money" at the start of California's Gold Rush. Toisan's (Toishan) famine, an agriculturally poor, over-populated mountainous region, started a mass diaspora to SE Asia and the Americas, bound together with the its unique Cantonese-like dialect.

The hc book has a 14-pg index, 100-pg appendices including a 25-pg bibliography, 35 maps & drawings and 32-pg of color pixs. Menzies' unique research adventure curiously starts with being raised in China as a child by a Chinese "amah," or old grandmother caregiver p10.

The ships were built from the essential teak and ironwood, a tropical hardwood, which has natural oils that resist weakening when submersed in seawater. The China Empire's Guangdong and Annan regions (now North Vietnam) had the virgin tropical rain forests p63 essential for building a flotilla of 400+ft ships.

"Junk" or "Wangkang" boat design and building, so labeled derisively by the UK and Europe, was not low-tech. It had rudders, keel designs and sails with battens needed to efficiently captured wind power. The major deficiency of being able to sail into the wind p64, unlike the deep keels and narrower beams of modern yacht design, was made up for by making huge ships with shallow (<10ft) draft so they could be self-sufficient for year-long voyages and global sailing techniques by set-sail "with" the prevailing winds and ocean currents (Walker circulation, UCAR). This seasonal geophysical and climatological knowledge was mapped in secret. Thus massive floating cities with appropriate talents for maintenance and exploitation, including shipwrights and masons, cooks and concubines, metallurgy and mining technologists, and huge holds for trading and tribute.

In 2003 the first American-built Chinese junk was launched. The US National Park Service had commissioned John Muir, a young curator of San Francisco's Maritime Museum to design and build a historically authentic junk at China Camp State Park near San Rafael, CA in Marin County. He participated in a cultural exchange program with Southern China resources to authenticate building techniques. It is the single-masted 43-ft junk "Grace Quan," a replica of a 1906 shrimp fishing sailboat where many used to ply SF Bay estuaries during the 1860-1910. The junk was christened (YouTube) in memory of the mother of 80+ year-old Frank Quan, the last surviving Chinese SF Bay shrimp fisherman. Muir's collegiate Masters thesis was on archaeology of CN fishing craft.

Then in 2005-8, a Taiwanese group, the Chinese Maritime Development Society [....], underwrote building an authentic 54-ft, 3-masted ocean-going Chinese Junk "Princess TaiPing." It was designed and built after an exhaustive 3-year program of shipbuilding research, a collaboration with PRChina, HK, and deciphering Fujian history and shipwright records of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). So far with a crew of eight, it has crossed the Pacific in 69 days, first landing in Eureka, Humboldt Cty near the CA-Oregon boarder before sailing south into SF Bay, Youtube (ZfpdWlcwcm4).

The crew was, understandably, cold, waterlogged, hungry for fresh produce and exhausted from surviving endless storms during the first leg of this historic voyage. The return leg to Greater China from San Diego is starting upon this writing (Dec 08). It will use a southern route via Hawaii to take advantage of the equatorial winds and currents of Winter. If successfully completed in 2009, this will be the first trans-Pacific crossing in a sailing junk in modern times.

"NingPo (previously Kin Tai Foong)" is the oldest (1753, Fuzhou, Fujian) known CN junk in California, sunk off the Catalina Islands [...]. This 138ft, 3-masted, 3ft draft junk was last used in 1938.

"Tek Sing (True Star)" sunk off the Sumatra, Java coast in SE Asia in 1822 with a full load of trade cargo and 1600 people, mainly field laborers bound for Java. The tragedy is known as the "Chinese Titanic." It was a 150ft, 3-masted, 20ft beam junk. The wreck was found on May 12, 1999 according to Nigel Pickford's book [...]. It was built in 1817 at Amoy (Xiamen) in Fujian province.

Another curious theory of Menzies' thesis is that Asiatic chickens (south CN) were present in the Americas before Columbus landed. There is an extended discussion p123 including Rhode Island where he claims that Chinese junks had gifted these chickens to American natives before the Portuguese and Spanish claimed the Americas.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, a bred of Asiatic chicken has black skin, meat, bones and special medicinal qualities. This Cornish hen-sized melanotic chickens are commercially raised in BC, Canada and distributed fresh and frozen throughout the States at large Asian markets and Chinatowns. The modern breed, a black Silkie, is popular as a pet breed in the UK.

Several TCM-oriented cookbooks include its preparation and herbs. There are many Taipei, Taiwan health food restaurants that serve it. It is entirely plausible that these chickens were raised on mediaeval junks to provide food that had extraordinary nutrition for long arduous voyages.

All-in-all, Menzies book is a fascinating read, easy to comprehend in that many of his theories are determined by careful examining disparate facts and using inductive logic. As in his discussion on how Chinese navigators were the first to discover how to accurately measure longitude in Appendix 4, p177-87 by year 1421.

Before Columbus started his journey, he already had in his possession a world map presented to the Pope by a Chinee envoy showing the American continent. Since the map already showed the new world (American continent) that means some other people had already been there and in this case the Chinese. Therefore, Columbus's claim that he discovered the new world was a false claim at best. Capt. Menzies listed detailed evidence to argue his case that the Chinese discovered America in 1421, about 100 years before Columbus and he has succeeded.

Yet another one of those books that had all the markings of something I would rather use as an assault missile from my deck when the neighboring children get too loud as I'm trying to read.

I wish I could give this a great review. Had Sir Menzies filed his work in the fiction section where it belongs, I may have. But unfortunately, a history this is not. I don't need to give you specifics as they are too plentiful everywhere else.

All I can say is that I really enjoyed the book for many reasons. Among them I now know that literary talent is judged not only by its product but also by its categorization.

This book may not be to everyone's liking, but it does use a great of deal of commonsense with regard to Mankind's perception of geographical knowledge in Medieval times. It makes perfect common sense that people explored the world BEFORE Chris Columbus. He must have had an idea from somewhere, that the 'Final Frontier' was out there.......the way to The Indies....only problem was the American continent got in the way! Or did it?? Did he know, that there was a landmass to the West? Where did he get his maps?
If this book is not to your liking, you must have a mind that is welded shut to the reception of new ideas.

A must read and a corrective of the present history of the discovery of America by Columbus. The cruelness of the emperor and his vision of a great "market" and "friends" across the seas are truly fascinating and understandable, yet frightening. The "proofs" and evidence presented make this the most wonderfully believable part of history not yet exposed.

You have to admit the author has ALOT and I do mean ALOT of evidence to prove that something went on long before Columbus got here. I think most of the proof lies with the plants, crops, animals and of course the wreckages found along the coasts. The ships lost alone is proof enough that the Chinese were in fact out there and discovering the world long before others. The maps used by others alone is proof. This auther has given history a swift kick in the pants and those who record it need to get some pretty big erasers. Get the book. Worth the read and the education.

A truly amazing story of how one man, little by little, pieced together shreds of evidence of the tremendous fleet of huge ships that China sent around the world 600 years ago. And well written.

1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)

New and unorthodox ideas are always fascinating and this book has plentiful. The presented evidence is sound and one very quickly turns to be a believer - it is hard at first but in a perspective there is a need to realize that Europeans were neither the first nor the best in a variety of cultural aspects including discoveries

This is no more "fantasy" than the "accepted" version of events!

It was a great read, especially compared to official (probably made-up)Eurocentric boring accounts.

If Menzies can get people passionate about ancient history then who cares just WHO went where and when? It's a good read.

Easy, fascinating read. Well researched and presented in a balanced way that allows you to follow the authors' thinking and discoveries. The book exposes the fallacies of conventional western teaching of history and Europe `discovering' the world.

1421 is a highly intriguing (and certainly controversial) book which postulates a theory that the Chinese were not only the first to "discover" the New World but had; indeed, circumvented the globe well before Magellan's expedition. While the author, Gavin Menzies, makes many assumptions and, at times, makes what appear to be rather wild suggestions concerning his theories, many of them do remain quite plausible.

Unlike others who have made outlandish claims as regarding early settlers in the Americas first (including the claims by one of this country's largest cults that continues to assert, in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that a non-existent group of ancient Israelis, the Nephites and the Lamanites are the ancestors of Native Americans), many of Menzies' intriguing ideas are capable of being further tested and examined for their veracity.

I was particularly fascinated with Menzies' (a former commander of a British submarine) use of ancient maps as the impetus for his theory. Granted, there are those that will rush to snub their noses at Menzies' ideas but certainly with further study, which is something that I believe the author would personally encourage, they will eventually be proven or discarded. Regardless, 1421 is a fascinating book and I would recommend it to anyone who might be interested in examining alternative views of history (of course, with both eyes open to test the veracity of this book).

I've been interested in different aspects of history for quite some time but the book, "1421: The Year China Discovered America" is the first to really light up my imagination! Gavin Menzies' writing style is almost conversational making it an easy read but he has included enough references and quotes to thoroughly prove his premise that the Chinese discovered and mapped the world long before the European explorers "discovered" anything. I recommend 1421 to even the most casual history buffs as I believe his view of world exploration explains many of the questions that have been raised over the years.

This book is based on misconceived ideas and supported by "facts" that make no sense if you have any historical knowledge. No historian backs Menzies in this book or 1434.

I received this book from my daughter, so it is with regret that I have to blast it. It seems so ungrateful. It was sweet of her to think of me.

But the book, from start to finish, is unvarnished bunk. I'm not a professional anything, but I know hokum when I read it. For examples, read the other one-star reviews.

The real question is, how does stuff like this ever get published? I think I have an answer, and it is slightly conspiratorial. I think it is part of a Chinese plot to disseminate pro-Chinese propaganda. The effort correlates with the Beijing Olympics and numerous other big-budget efforts to get everyone to like the Chinese. Menzies is on their payroll.

To borrow one of Menzie's own techniques, I'll declare this because there can't possibly be another explanation! It must be the Chinese!!!

Overall I did not like this book. The premise is interesting, and there may be some truth in some of the points made in the book, but I was dissappointed with the weak reasoning, and the exaggerated tone of the book. By half-way through I felt I was reading a book about "Bigfoot" or the "Yeti", rather than a well researched history. I will avoid this author in the future.

From time to time, this reviewer comes across a publication so crackpot that I hardly know where to start in reviewing it here. I'm happy to see that Gavin Menzies' thesis in 1421: The Year China Discovered America, that a Chinese fleet launched in 1421, embarked on a tour around the world, discovering all major points before Europeans and leaving artifacts, has already been generally debunked by numerous sources. Perhaps the most substantial is Robert Finlay's review "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America" in the Journal of World History, June 2004, where Finlay shows that there are no "lost years" in Ming dynasty sailing, and so Menzies' book is completely without foundation. My fellow reviewers here have also offered some important critiques. I would like to offer a perspective from my own individual profession, linguistics. Menzies writes, for example:

"Linguistics provide further evidence. The people of the Eten and Monsefu villages in the Lambayeque province of Peru can understand Chinese but not each otherâ(tm)s patois, despite living only three miles apart. Stephen Powers, a nineteenth-century inspector employed by the government of California to survey the native population, found linguistic evidence of a Chinese-speaking colony in the state."

The first assertion, on the Peruvian village, is not sourced at all and is either the personal fancy of the author or some minor crank idea. The second, however, is cited to an 19th-century bit of scholarship evidentally done without appropriate field methods. He goes on to claim that Chinese sailors shipwrecked on the East Coast of the United States would have been able to communicate with locals, as these would have included Chinese who had walked over the Bering Strait. Chinese walk across to Alaska and across all North America, but end up speaking Middle Chinese, and yet leave no trace of this dialect on neighbouring Native American languages? Risible fantasy. There's even an assertion that Navajo elders understand Chinese conversation, and an assertion that the Peruvian village name Chanchan must be Chinese because it sounds (at least to him) like "Canton". Perhaps the silliest Peruvian connection is between Chinese "qipu" and Quechua "quipu"; Menzies seemingly doesn't understand that "q" represents a completely different sound in each language. So, I hope that the reader with some training in linguistics can see what kind of arguments are used in the book, and beware accordingly.

If I may be permitted one final indulgence, I should like to protest Menzies' weird view of Chinese culture. He blasts European explorers for committing genocide, claiming that continued Chinese expansion would have led instead to a world of peace and Confucian harmony. This is the naive romantic view of the Orient held by a child flipping through National Geographic. A man of Menzies' age and experience should have realized that all civilizations have it within them to commit do in indigenous peoples--the marginalization of Tibetan and Uighur language and culture and the disappearance already of a distinct Manchu people stand as proof that the Chinese are no exception.