Rating: 
Summary: Most Likely True
Review: I accept the basis hypothesis the Ming voyagers circumvented the globe; charted their findings; and European explorers used these as the basis of their own adventures.The Ming voyagers were not sailing totally in the dark. They knew of the existence of the Americas from Chinese chronicles. China had explored the Americas from the Pacific eight centuries earlier. Such is detailed in Henriette Mertz' "Pale Ink." China was never in any Dark Age. The Middle Kingdom viewed itself as the center of the UNIVERSE! China was as technologically, militarily, and economically powerful for most of history (and especially in the days of early European conquest) as is the United States today. But, maybe even more so. The riches Europe found in the Americas was not as a result of trade. It was a result of plunder and enslavement. The original goal of European conquest was to acquire the treasures of the Orient. China already had them. So from that, China did not necessarily withdraw. Portugal actually originally attempted to take China by force. China crushed the Portugese invasion. It was not until the Opium Wars the West was able to militarily defeat China. China possessed the wherewithall to accomplish the task and probably did.
Rating:
Summary: A House of Cards
Review: Gavin Menzies book is fascinating reading. It is well written and worth reading which is why I gave it four stars. However, this book should be read more as fantasy or counterfactual history than as reality. Menzies' methodology is flawed. He assumes that any chart which predates Columbus and shows features of the new world before they were "discovered" by Europeans must be based on information obtained directly or indirectly from the Chinese. And in specific by the Chinese treasure fleet that was dispatched in1421 and returned in1423 AD. He is free to speculate freely about that voyage since all records of the trip were destroyed when China cut off contact with the outside world immediately after their return from that voyage. Starting with this initial hypothesis in each chapter he adds new speculation concerning what the treasure fleet may have discovered. The next chapter adds new speculation based on the assumption that everything in the previous chapters is correct. The end result is a house of cards, and just as flimsy. The Chinese may have reached America before Columbus. In fact, there is ample evidence that a number of people were vaguely aware of the western hemisphere before Columbus. It has been proven by archaeology that the Vikings visited North America (Vineland). There is a strong possibility that the Basque fishermen had fishing camps off Newfoundland and other parts of the Canadian and New England coast in the 14th and 15th century. It is possible that the Irish and other also visited the New World before Columbus. Of course many of these travelers kept their charts and nautical knowledge secret. So an actual awareness of the Western Hemisphere did not become common knowledge until after Columbus' "Discovery. But the point is there are plenty off other candidates that could be the source of pre-Columbian knowledge of the New World that appears the early charts that Menzies relies on for his hypothesis. Future research may prove that the Chinese sailors traveled further than anyone ever imagined. (Just as it may prove that other early sailors traveled further that recent historians thought possible.) However, as I indicated at the beginning; this book should be read more for fun than scholarship.
Rating: 
Summary: At least it's funny...
Review: I would give this book no stars, excepting two factors. First, the part about trained otters was cool. Second, it made me laugh. There is one thing that I can not get over...Menzies includes all these maps (purported to be made by Chinese), and is always making statements like "Clearly it is the South American coast." What? It looks nothing like the South American coast! And if they are drawn by Chinese with exceptional navigational and map-making skills, why does CHINA not even resemble China?! Oh, and even better, Menzies states that since there are Chinese products (silk, etc) in South America, then CLEARLY Chinese must have been there before Western colonization. What? Someone please show me where the bridge is that closes this chasm of logic, because I am stranded over here in the land of sanity. What I heard was "There's silk in Argentina", and Menzies is off re-writing history. How did he get there?Maybe, just maybe, they were brought over AFTER trade routes were established. Ridiculous. But aren't you laughing?
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating thesis - let the debate begin!
Review: I approached this book with the curiousity of an amateur historian and, admittedly, with a good deal of skepticism. After all, how could such a monumental journey that led to the discovery of not only North and South America, but also Antarctica and Australia, and the full circumnavigation of the globe along multiple tracks have escaped from the annals of history? I expected a great deal of circumstantial evidence, and of this there is plenty, but to my astonishment, Menzies presents multiple incidents of physical evidence -- shipwrecks and construction dotted across the globe. Couple this with well-documented references from the writings of the European explorers, who apparently made no effort to hide their knowledge that they were travelling in the wake of others. Menzies presents multiple lines of evidence -- pre-Columbian maps, displaced plant and animal populations, native folklore, clusters of Asian DNA in the Americas, shipwrecks, monuments, and writings, among others -- that when viewed as a whole provide a strong case of Chinese exploration and colonization prior to the Europeans. By the author's own admission, quite a bit of this evidence is still rudimentary, but the outpouring of scholarship this book has seemed to trigger promises to flesh out this thesis and refine the debate. Menzies' thesis is not without criticism -- the lack of contact with Europe despite the fleet's charge to bring the entire world into the Chinese tribute system is a most prominent omission and not addressed in the book. Other claims seem terribly far-fetched (hints of Chinese copper mining as far inland as Michigan's Upper Peninsula), but I'm optimistic that over time the core thesis of the Chinese discovery of the Americas will be validated. Almost overshadowed at the end of the book is an assertion by Menzies that the Portugese, using Chinese knowledge, established thriving colonies in the Caribbean as early as the 1440's. While the Chinese records may have indeed been destroyed, some record of this Portugese settlement must have been preserved. This is a curious claim supported by underwhelming evidence that deserves comment as it stands to harm the credibility of the more convincing case of Chinese discovery if it proves false. Perhaps this is a readily-available lead that needs to be taken up in the near-term in order to clarify the debate? The knee-jerk criticism of this work is Menzies non-academic background. However, I'm convinced on reading the book that this is actually his greatest strength. Menzies approaches his thesis with his knowledge as a navigator and seaman and without the peer pressure of convential wisdom, and this seems to allow him to 'connect the dots' in ways a traditional book-bound academic could never realize. I caution that one reviews the motives of the sharpest-tongued critics before passing judgement on such criticism. This book is clearly the starting point of a debate that promises to rage for decades. I'm eager to observe the response as the case now goes before peer review. This promises to begin a significant awakening that American history has a much richer heritage than just its European roots. If nothing else, the valuable surge in pre-Columbian scholarship will enrich our American culture. Now, let the debate begin!
Rating:
Summary: Filling in the dark parts of history
Review: The main argument of this book, that the Chinese drew the charts the Europeans used to colonize the world in the age of exploration, makes a lot of sense. This book's thesis lives and dies by the fact that the medieval "charts of the world" held accurate information long before Europeans got that far. Information that only the Chinese could possibly have gathered. I appreciate the mariner's viewpoint and experience Menzies brings to this issue. He lays out how the voyages could have happened given ship designs, wind, and currents. His research into languages and physical evidence is impressive. Obviously, he has been thinking about this for many years. In the end, I want to believe there is something to all this. This theory of the Bimini road & the idea that the Columbus brothers were the greatest forgers of all time appeal to me. In the end, truth really is stranger than fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting, but a bit of an overreach
Review: Menzies makes a very convincing argument that the Chinese had a very strong seafaring tradition for over a millennium and that tradition had a very abrupt end in the 1420's. Menzies makes an interesting, but a little less compelling argument that the Chinese left artifacts of their travels throughout the world in the form of maps, buildings, animals, colonists, and carved stones. What Menzies doesn't do convincingly is explain why the reader should believe that all these maps, buildings, animals, colonists, and carved stones should have originated during a single 2 or 3 year period, as opposed to the preceding thousand years. That said, I love this sort of speculative, what-if type of history. If Menzies somewhat overstates his case in an attempt to wrap everything up in one neat package, then that is more than compensated by the importance of the core of his proposition. It is my recollection that the theories of Alfred E. Crosby and Henry F. Dobyns were greeted with a good deal more skepticism than this book has been.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Text
Review: I thought this was a very good text and worth reading. I won't say allot due to many fine comments already made.
Yes, there was much circumstancial evidence in the text. If however the text is true, the future research maybe a treasure trove of information. If nothing else can be said there is allot of fine documentation and research invovled in the hypothesis. I hope to see continued scientific evidence and support for this thesis/topic. The investment in time it took in reading such a monster was worthwhile. Semper Fidelis
Rating:
Summary: Chinese history in the UFO genre
Review: If your reading tends toward investigations of extra-terrestrial visitations, I highly recommend this book. Appropriate to this genre, the speculations are highly iconoclastic and experiments to collaborate the conclusions are easily imagined. If you are looking for contradictions to 'classic' European narrative history, the book will please but could have been much shorter. A 30 page magazine article could get most of the points across. I probably enjoy both lines of thought more than I should admit. Unfortunately, the author fails to investigate the existing histories of the 'treasure ship' voyages. Rather than provide me with a commentary on his travels to distant sites while researching the book, I would have much preferred he argue the strengths of his case against those of other historians. The author acts like a lone reporter investigating a conspiracy of silence. While few English speakers profess much interest in Chinese history, the field is not a vacuum. I wish the author knew more about the art of writing history. In summary, the book raises some interesting issues. If it had been written in the 'historical' genre rather than the 'extra-terrestrial' style, it might inspire more interest in Chinese history.
Rating:
Summary: The truth hurts
Review: The book isn't the best reading but the subject matter is awesome and I later saw Menzies on CSPAN at The India Club. He seemed to support his claims very well with a series of visuals. A lot of what I learned about the world's history came after I was in my 20's. I don't want to get off subject by listing the many examples. I feel that white people can't stand the fact that they weren't the first to discover everything. Let's face it...Columbus didn't discover America. He still made quite an achievement but he wasn't the 1st.
Rating: 
Summary: Rewriting History or Wishful Thining?
Review: It has long been known that the Chinese had large ocean-going fleets in the early 1400s and used them in the eastern Pacific and Indian oceans. Gavin Menzies proposes that in 1421 these fleets were sent out to explore the entire world. His thesis is that the Chinese solved the problem of determining longitude and went on to map most of the worlds land masses. It is an interesting idea, and there is strong evidence that Chinese fleets reached southeast Africa, and perhaps even western Africa,during this period. The author weaves a speculative web showing how the Chinese could have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific, explored and colonized North and South America, and even sailed the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia in the early 1400s. Unfortunately he is not able to offer any proof that this happened. Most of his evidence is circumstantial and much of it is little more than statements that the early European navigators could not have navigated unknown waters without Chinese charts. Menzies' hypothesis is plausible, even though he is not able to present a convincing case. The Chinese did have fleets capable of travelling long distances, and there was brief period of interest in expanding China's influence in the early 1400s. It is possible that Chines ships did reach Australia and eastern South America looking for new trade opportunities in 1421. However, the author stretches credibility when he claims that the only land mass that the Chinese did not visit was western Europe. Why would the one area of the world where China knew that there was potential trade be overlooked? Also, the author's claim that a Chinese fleet crossed the Arctic Ocean by going over northern Siberia is so far-fetched as to make me question all his other chains of reasoning. The Northeast Passage is a difficult trip even for modern icebreakers. The idea that a fleet of 15th century Chines junks could do it is absurd. Overall this book is worth looking at because it raises the interesting question of how much of the world China interacted with in the early 1400s. However, an answer to that question will need serious scholarship, not the wishful thinking that Gavin Menzies exhibits in "1421".
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