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Title: Lame Pseudo-history
Review: I picked this book up during a long layover at Heathrow.Amusingly, the English title is "1421: The Year ChinaDiscovered the World" (as opposed to "America"). Thepublishers know their target markets, I guess. At firstglance, it looked to be a semi-serious popular historyof the last voyages of the great Chinese exploration fleets,a topic which interests me, so I bought it. What adisappointment! The author mutilates logic, history, biology,and linguistics to support his notions of what the Chinesemight have done. The Chinese navigators probably did dosome of the less ludicrous things that Menzies suggests.But the intellectually dishonest style of the book actuallymakes me *less* inclined to believe it. I would recommendthis book only to real fans of pseudo-science, who willfind many hours of amusement playing spot-the-fallacy inthe 600-odd pages. You have been warned.
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