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The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story Of The Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked The Mysteries Of The Middle Kingdom (2008)

by Simon Winchester(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0060884592 (ISBN13: 9780060884598)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Harper

review 1: A riveting and colorful tale of the great encyclopedist Joseph Needham. Needham's 17 bulky tomes of a series still unfinished today called Science and Civilization in China reveal that most of history's great technological breakthroughs prior to the 18th century were made in China, often centuries before they arrived in the west. Not just gunpowder and the compass, but clocks, the iron plow, stirrups, vaccination for small pox, even toilet paper. Well, there are 27 books of them and it's still not finished. Needham was a colorful figure to say the least. A bit of an adventurer, the Cambridge don and biochemist was a devout Christian, socialist and nudist, married 50 years with a Chinese mistress for 45 years, all getting along happily together. It was the mistress who got ... morehim hooked on China. He was in China during the Japanese occupation in WW II, funded by the British government as part of its alliance with Chiang Kai-shek. Nonetheless he was a great admirer of Mao Tse-tung and pretty close friends with Zhou En-lai.
review 2: I really enjoyed this book. Joseph Needham was a Cambridge professor who became a sinophile, learning Mandarin and travelling to China during the Japanese invasion. He wound up finding his life's work: writing a series of 24 volumes about the history of invention and science in China. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Simon Winchester delivers again with a well-written, riveting account of an obsessive man. I definitely recommend this one! less

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