Mr Menzies has written a book with a fascinating premise, too bad its almost too flawed to be considered non-fiction. The main concept is that China had landed in North America in the early 1400’s before the Europeans had. Much of the premise starts with the Chinese Muslim admiral, Zheng He, who sailed to the coast of Africa. According to Menzies, unlike traditonal accounts, Zheng He did not stop on the west coast of Africa, but actually rounded the Cape of Good Hope before Magellan. Some people have debated that, but at this point most will say its more conjecture. However, Mr Menzies not only claim Zheng He rounded Africa, but traveled to North America. He cites many ‘proofs’, but unfortunately the leap in faith from a small clue to the conclusion that the Chinese reached the Americas is huge indeed. This is definitely one of those cases where a conclusion was already reached, and every ‘fact’ was made to fit into that conclusion.
In general, I am much happier reading history meant for a general audience, as books produced for an academic audience tends to be much more densely written at times, and at other times just poorly written. In this case however, the book screams for some formal academic scrutiny. Keep in mind that I would love for some of Menzies speculations to be true, but as I said previously, this book is more speculation than history. It’s so off from what a good history books is that I’m hestitant to even link to it , but hey maybe you just want to see how NOT to write a history book.
