Another cool Simon Winchester book
I love odd histories. Simon Winchester writes excellent odd histories. Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman were great. Last night I finished his biography of Joseph Needham -- The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom. I had never heard of Needham before I read this. He was an English biochemist who fell for a Chinese expat. She became his mistress, with his wife's consent. (The three of them spent a lot of time together, actually, which is cool considering it was the 1930's.) She taught him Chinese, and that led to him going to China as a diplomat.
The last couple of decades of his life were spent writing a massive, multi-volume history of Chinese technology (Science and Civilization in China)). Through his research he discovered that the Middle Kingdom Chinese invented a large number of things thought to be uniquely developed in the West. Printing presses, frag grenades, even an airplane. The list is immense. Science and Civilization is still being written today, although Needham died in the 1990's. I'd be interested in looking at it, but the enormity of it is intimidating.
This wasn't the most engaging book Winchester has written, but it was enjoyable.
The last couple of decades of his life were spent writing a massive, multi-volume history of Chinese technology (Science and Civilization in China)). Through his research he discovered that the Middle Kingdom Chinese invented a large number of things thought to be uniquely developed in the West. Printing presses, frag grenades, even an airplane. The list is immense. Science and Civilization is still being written today, although Needham died in the 1990's. I'd be interested in looking at it, but the enormity of it is intimidating.
This wasn't the most engaging book Winchester has written, but it was enjoyable.