|
| The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom | 
 enlarge | Author: Simon Winchester
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $14.76
You Save: $13.19 (47%)
New (52) Used (26) Collectible (6) from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 4456
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060884592
Dewey Decimal Number: 509.2
EAN: 9780060884598
ASIN: 0060884592
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
By the Biographer Who Brings Prominence to the Obscure June 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How can you resist Simon Winchester? This guy has the outlandish pluck to examine an obscure, deceased, lefty academic and turn him into the sexy sage whose revisionist history of technology has become a best seller. But, Winchester tackles his subject with such verve and shapes his narrative with such novelistic skill, that he has created a wholly engaging biography.
Basically, Needham fell in love with China in the 1930s under the influence of his colleague and lover, Lu Gwei-djen. He learned to read and write Chinese in three years. Upon visiting the country, he launched into his massive project to document every modicum of progress accomplished since the 15th century BC. This task is still not complete; Science and Civilisation in China is in 24 volumes, but more is to come from the folks at Cambridge.
Needham's eccentricity, genius and persistence deserve recognition, though the promise of such a character pales with the years. By the end, I was hoping for something more. Frankly, a few highlights from Needham's writings should have been included. I would have loved to read a few anecdotes about ancient masters whipping up silk robes for their girlfriends, blowing up mountains with high explosives or buzzing around in bamboo airplanes.
In the epilogue, Winchester addresses the "Needham question" that wonders why China could not utilize its inventiveness to the benefit of its people. It seems that as soon as Europe pulled out of the Dark Ages, China stumbled in. Such a question cannot be succinctly answered, but the author bats it around. This is a great book to read- especially if you don't know much about China or science. Winchester will keep you entertained.
A Good First Try July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Simon Winchester brings his considerable literary talent to a subject which one wouldn't think would catch the popular imagination. Joseph Needham is not exactly a household name. In the years of my academic training, I could have identified him and maybe even looked into his books once or twice but neither the subject nor the encyclopedic majesty of the works asserted by Winchester would have been high on any of my quite diverse scholarly horizons. I only made use of Needham's work when looking into Chinese attitudes toward nature and then it was the last book on agriculture, written entirely by someone other than Needham, which drew my attention. When I looked into the earlier volumes I found them listy without the kind of synthesis of history which would have made them more useful. In fact Winchester never addresses how much Needham's works really added to our understanding of Chinese history. At the end of the book Winchester does address, the "Needham problem," why China was so advanced and then completely dropped out the technological and scientific race. But it is clear that Needham's massive endeavor adds little to answering the question. The issue of who invented what first, establishing Chinese priority, seemed to be Needham's goal. While vaguely interesting like sports' records, what counts is the context of first and what that means, something which Needham may have presented, but we find little of in Winchester's biography.
What we do learn is about Needham's life of which I was entirely ignorant. What an interesting man and what a polymath. I am impressed and find myself coming up short in comparison. I have done hardly anything compared to Needham nor possess anywhere near the raw intellectual power and ability to work. Needham's personal life is intriguing. He was able to weave two, if not many more, capable women into his bed and get them to support him in his ambitious projects. He had his cake and et it, although after his wife and paramour die, his underlying neurotic need for female companionship is exposed. Then there was his achievement as a scientist. That alone makes him stand out. When tied to his work in China during the war, he becomes even more impressive. He both supports science and has an opportunity to live a bit of a Marco Polo existence. Here I feel there is an imbalance, maybe it is in Winchester's presentation or maybe in Needham's way of seeing the world. Needham is like an upper-class English radical: great social values, but not really applied to how he lives. He travels through the chaos of war torn China, and though commenting on it, does not really seem to take in the horror of it all. He has a kind of indifferent stiff upper lip. Maybe it is Winchester's presentation but I think it was Needham himself. Here is where I would have liked Winchester to give more historical context and maybe be a little more critical of his hero. An example, though from a different era was Winchester's discussion of the great Min river irrigation and water containment projects of the Qin dynasty. Winchester follows Needham in seeing this hydraulic achievement as another first, 3 centuries before the Roman aqueducts, and making possible the agricultural growth and stability of China. But there is nary a mention of the human cost of construction nor the incredible brutality of Qin's autocratic rule. The science and engineering priority come first,
This fits with Needham's incredible political naivete. A confirmed socialist in the `20s and `30's who witnesses Chiang Kai-shek's corruption during World War Two, Needham has good grounds for his outlook. But his blindness when it comes to Mao's China, like the innocence of progressives visiting the Soviet Union in the 1930s, is inexcusable and says something about Needham that Winchester does not fully explore. Needham didn't see through the show the Chinese put on for him when he visited nor figure out that his friends had vanished during the cultural revolution. And that he wasn't principled enough to call a spade a spade says something about Needham's personality or Winchesters lack of criticalness in presenting Needham's life. On the whole, the book is interesting but as in Winchester's other writings it would have profited from a more incisive application of critical history. I would also liked to have had an evaluation of how "Science and Civilization," fits into an understanding of China's past.
Charlie Fisher, author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World
An eccentric visionary July 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As one who is inquisitively interested in the transitions of power within China, I found this eminently readable description of a brilliant British academic's efforts to provide tools for teaching and research to Chinese universities evacuated from Japanese occupation, a fascinating glimpse into the personalities and problems of the political protagonists of wartime China.
 The Man Who Loved China July 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having long been an admirer of Joseph Needham, and having read some of his magnificent work "Science and Civilisation in China", I was looking forward to this biography of Needham. I knew little of Needham's wartime introduction to China and was eager to learn more, but I especially wanted to know more about the direct research that went into his masterpiece. On the first topic, I was rewarded with a thrilling account of Needham's wartime travels, and that alone justified the book. However, I was rather disappointed to find less than fifty pages devoted to the scholarly aspects of "Science and Civilisation in China" -- especially when eighteen pages are devoted to the consequences of Needham's political naivete during the Korean war. In short, a worthwhile book, but I look forward to a fuller treatment of Needham's relationship to his masterwork.
Cris Whetton, Tampere, Finland, July 2008
A bit dry on the 'exciting' part August 1, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A comprehensive overview of Joseph Needham's life and contribution to China, its science and its civilization. A bit dry on the 'exciting' part.
I also recommend the 'The professor and the madman' by Simon Winchester.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
