Books : The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 509.2
EAN: 9780060884598
ISBN: 0060884592
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: May 01, 2008
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: May 06, 2008
Sales Rank: 6543
Studio: Harper
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.
He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.
After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.
Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I love reading about China. This book began well and intrigued me, but it soon lost its intrigue. It seemed to flatten out and never redeemed itself. I am a glad that I read it,
however I found it only average.
Rating: -
Interesting material but Winchester does not altogether succeed in bringing his subject to life. The travels in China during the Second World War are the best part of the book.
Rating:  -
This is one of the best book's I have read from both a Political and socialogical point of view, his observations of primarily the center-land were were most informative and candid as well as written in a style that makes very easy reading.
Rating:  -
what a great person to learn about and be remembers for his vision, commitment, and integrity. we need more like him today
Rating: -
There is little point in being redundant by parroting all of the complimentary remarks regarding this well-written book. It suffices to say, it is a "must read" work by those interested in China, especially those who are drawn to the history of science. There is only one additional point regarding the sixteenth century watershed that needs to be given some consideration: Agricultural advancements in the introduction of then-new foodstuffs (such as yams) into the diets of peoples throughout the world that better enabled them to survive and, in turn, develop their cultural and physical resources more thoroughly. This advancement certainly fueled the worldwide rise in human population which countered to some degree the effects of recurrent endemic setbacks. Once the yoke of survival had been lightened, people found themselves in more encouraging circumstances in which to better direct their creative energy into constructive pursuits that eventually gave birth to a multitude of revolutionary changes.
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