1421: The Year China Discovered America

U.S.A: Harper Perennial, 2004. Paperback. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7. Trade Paperback in Very Good Condition. Originally published in Great Britain in 2002. Four section of eight pages of full color illustrations on coated paper. Clean and bright wrappers with cover image by Steve Rawlings. A touch of wear to extremities, no creasing; solid, tight and square binding. Internals clean, no markings, no creasing. P.S. includes Interviews, features, and bio of author. Menzies has turned history as we know it on its ears--he has written a history book that re-writes our understanding of history--or an historical detective story? It seems like a mystery novel, but is a fundamental re-write of the history of fifteenth-century maritime exploration. Includes a list of maps and diagrams; list of plates; Chinese nomenclature. Gavin Menzies gives an account of China setting the largest fleet the world had ever seen to sea on March 8, 1421. They sailed to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas. When the fleet returned home the emperor had fallen, leaving China in chaos and the fleet rotting at their moorings and the records of their journeys destroyed. Menzies posits that China reached America 70 years before Columbus and had circumnavigated the globe before Magellan. In the course of his research for this book, Menzies visited 120 countries, more than 900 museums and libraries and every major seaport of the late Middle Ages. Menzies has sifted his way through remarkable materials. 6 x 9 inches. 650 pages Indexed with 16 pp of P.S. information and Appendices, and Notes. 2004, Harper Perennial, USA