1434 Audiobook By Gavin Menzies cover art

1434

The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance

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1434

By: Gavin Menzies
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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The brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434, China - then the world's most technologically advanced civilization - provided the spark that set the European Renaissance ablaze. From that date onward, Europeans embraced Chinese ideas, discoveries, and inventions, all of which form the basis of Western civilization today.

The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 combines a long-overdue historical reexamination with the excitement of an investigative adventure, bringing the listener aboard the remarkable Chinese fleet as it sails from China to Cairo and Florence, and then back across the world. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 will change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.

©2008 Gavin Menzies (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers Asia China Europe Italy Renaissance World
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I enjoyed reading 1434. It seemed to be a mixed of well-researched fact and some questionable speculation. Zheng He was most likely Confucian like most Chinese and not Muslim. The author could have also talked about the agricultural and military technology the Italians gave to the Chinese on their visit.

Zheng He Visits Florence, Italy

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Coherent and complimentary to the wide world of non traditional history. I want to see more and specific details to further explore our actual history.

Enlightenment is Exciting

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I came to 1434 from 1421, and I'm glad I did. 1421 made me want to rip up my college degree and throw it in the trash; I only kept it because so many people still believe in that kind of thing.
Menzies started this book wondering how it's possible that education is still teaching the same old "Columbus sailed off into the blue" line that us old folks were raised on; I spent much of my listening time thinking about the mentality of the people who gave this incredibly intelligent and well-researched book one star, claiming it was all conjecture and nonsense.
Maybe I should write a book about why most people will not change they believe no matter how much logical and consistent evidence you present.
No, I'd better forget it. I haven't got a clue -- and I don't think I want to know.
Oh, I almost forgot. The narrator is absolutely first class. Delightful voice with a very light touch.

Very challenging!

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Gavin Menzies has illuminated us with an alternate history of the world that is backed up by his extensive research. I still had to feel that whatever books were shared with the Europeans had to have been in Chinese,so without good translators I find it a bit hard to believe that the Italians could have simply copied many designs from the Chinese and set off the Renaissance in Europe. Maybe Michael Angelo was simply a talented artist who set about taking these ancient texts and vividly improving the quality of the pictures within. Much like 1421, I think this book might be one best read and so when I have some time I will check out both from the library and have a good look at the pictures provided. The maps and artifacts demand visual representation that an audiobook simply can't provide. This was an entertaining book and was well narrated by Simon Vance, who has an excellent British accent. Maybe Audible could provide us with a PDF of these photos to further enhance our understanding of what could be a very clear and significantly different history from what we learned in school. Some other good histories were provided by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel and a pair of books called 1491 and 1493, which also challenge the dogma we have been presented.

A contrary view that has some merit

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Some of the worst things I have ever read. Such a bunch of non sense non historic opinions connected by some ilogical processes to produce non sense conclusions

A bunch of disconnected ideas with no historic or logical background

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Not very often you read something and become dumber afterwards - so this is quite a rare achievement for the author, kudos. It’s like the history channel aliens - every piece of imaginable and unimaginable evidence is to support a crazy hypothesis. Most of it plain wrong. Read this as a fictional/parallel reality/alternative history what if only

Ridiculous

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What disappointed you about 1434?

This book was blowing my mind... until I found out it isn't really true.

Or, rather, some of it's true, some of it isn't, which's arguably worse, because then you can't tell the difference. If it were all fiction, that'd be fine, it'd be literature. But sadly, when you look at actual historical scholarship, many of the things Menzies writes about (like the Chinese fleet getting to Venice, the crux of the book) are crank speculations lacking any evidence. It's too bad, because even without that, the parts of the book that are factual would've already been mind-blowing enough, there's no need to turn it into fiction just to make it a few percent sexier.

My advice: go read some credible historical texts about the Chinese treasure fleet. It's mind-blowing enough.

Would you ever listen to anything by Gavin Menzies again?

No

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from 1434?

All of the inaccuracies

Any additional comments?

I wish I could get my money back.

Fiction pretending to be history

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