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1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance | 
 enlarge | Authors: Menzies, Gavin
Creator: Reader: To Be Announced
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.49
You Save: $11.46 (38%)
New (32) Used (7) from $12.97
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 883777
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 10
Pages: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1433214644
Dewey Decimal Number: 945.05
EAN: 9781433214646
ASIN: 1433214644
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 presents compelling new evidence that the European Renaissance was spurred in large part by Chinese advances in science, art, and technology.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 1434 January 4, 2009
This book begins with a lot of technical stuff. If you majored in Latin to avoid taking math, don't give up, just turn the pages. About the third chapter it gets really interesting and fun to read. It is filled with extraordinary bits of information that will delight you.
 "Worlds in Collision" for the 21st Century January 1, 2009
A waste. I bought this in an airport, hoping for an interesting history to pass a long flight. What I got was research of the most shoddy sort, deductions of the "all of the dogs have stopped barking" variety, and exhortations to visit the author's website for up-to-the-minute revelations. Total garbage.
 This is a BRILLIANT book! A MUST read for educator and student alike December 31, 2008
To understand the controversy over Menzies's books 1421 and 1434, you have to understand the politics of writing - and rewriting - history. Careers are built upon, towns are named for, and a segment of the publishing and entertainment industries are programmed to maintain a keystone American myth about "Discovery."
If what Menzies postulates in 1421 and 1434 is true, why, Columbus, Ohio, would have to rename itself Zheng He-ville. Columbus Circle in NYC would change to Zheng He Circle. All the nursery songs would have to be rewritten. All those scholarly texts would be put in the recycling bin. All those illustrations of a handsome Italian dressed in velvet standing on a sandy shore under the admiring gaze of "primitive" people would end up lining kitty boxes.
It's pretty staggering, what would happen if the myth of Columbus bit the dust once and for all.
Menzies was attacked by his critics. Not a pretty sight.
But 1434 is succeeding anyway, largely because of the internet. Menzies very smartly asked for help from the world's scholars and lay researchers.
They answered his call, from around the world.
If you are not deterred by naysayers, you will be treated to a well-researched and well-written, fully foot-noted twosome, 1421 and its sequel, 1434.
If you can admire the accomplishments of civilizations outside of Europe, you will be totally fascinated by the pieces of information Menzies has doggedly pursued. 1434 is a fun-to-read history book that rests on new discoveries as well as scholarly, less accessible works like the survey of Chinese science and math written by Joseph Needham. At times 1434 reads like a detective novel. Menzies traveled to many cities and towns around the Mediterranean and discovered, for example, that Leonardo's brilliant "inventions" were actually based on drawings done by another Italian artist who based his work on Chinese inventions.
Menzies very intelligent, collective approach to history mirrors what you come to realize while reading the book - that the collective work of an entire culture far exceeds the accomplishments of the individual "genius." Students and anyone interested in history will learn an important lesson from reading 1434: that you don't have to have a degree in history to study, think, and contribute to human knowledge. And the lesson that Menzies learned? Those who step outside the cabin and rechart history must be readly to withstand a flogging from the captains of academia.
I'm glad he was up to the task. Read his books. You will enjoy the journey.
more stuff and nonsense December 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is tedious to critique Menzies work because it consists of little more than a tissue of error and self-delusion. It is like trying to discuss the pre-war intelligence in Iraq. If you are rational and objective, Menzies looks laughable. But if you are disposed to believe him, the most cogent argument won't shake your faith.
There are two very sad things about Menzies' success. One is that so many people have swallowed his fantasies, when a good undergraduate degree should be enough to debunk him. The second is that Menzies' writing has obscured the facts, at least in the popular mind, about China's contributions to world culture. There were thousands of years of contact between Europe and China prior to 1434 and there is a great deal of good research to be done on mutual influences. But this book doesn't help at all.
Would have been better classified under "Fiction" November 27, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Menzies has really gone off the deep end with this one. His first book pushed the boundaries of feasibility with its specualtion on where the chinese fleets might have got to - outside of the already established voyages and some somewhat probable locations such as northern australia. This one pushes beyond the boundaries of feasibility and into alternative realities. I'm glad I borrowed the book rather than bought it, and I'm glad I read the very detailed reviews here before I even took that step. Thanks to all those reviewers who put a lot of time and effort into critiquing this book. Honestly, he could have been a good science fiction writer.....but history, NOT!
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