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Product Description
In sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham—the brilliant Cambridge scientist, freethinking intellectual, and practicing nudist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, once the world's most technologically advanced country.
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Customer Reviews: - Keys to China
At a recent Book Club MeetUp, we ended with a discussion of our own minority experiences. As a good proportion of Silicon Valley's residents are from Mainland China, Taiwan and India, several of the participants were dark-skinned Indians and at least one was Chinese. Towards the end of our time together a Chinese woman spoke up for the first time to announce in a soft voice that she was, in her words, "a racist".
We were astonished. But she was not kidding.
"I believe the Chinese people are inferior to Westerners," she said very clearly. Then she explained that since she had come to the U.S. in 1989, she has seen how advanced this country is compared to China.
We were taken aback and hastened to assure her that we respected China for its ancient civilization and its increasing industrial and technical prowess. But as she spoke I thought, all we hear about China is the Tiananmen Square, the cruel Cultural Revolution, starvation and political repression.
I had already planned to read "The Man Who Loved China", by Simon Winchester. Spurred by that 'racist' comment- a confession of humiliation, perhaps- when I checked the book out of my local library I plowed through the many, many details of Needham's academic career.
A scholar obsessed with all things Chinese and an ardent socialist, Joseph Needham devoted his entire career as an Oxford don to living in and traveling through China from 1943 through the Mao years, dallying along the way with attractive Chinese women- never fully described, darn it- apparently tolerated by his English wife.. The result of his endeavors? Several volumes, the sine qua non on China's intellectual and scientific, geographic, anthropologic, religious and social history. Fascinating, yes. But as I neared the end of this mighty tome, I despaired that nothing in this man's life story would make that Chinese woman feel proud of China today.
However, when I reached the epilogue my efforts were richly rewarded. In this chapter Winchester describes both China's 'attitude' of absolute superiority, of not needing anything from the west. He lists the various theories for this: national personality characteristics; the many western military invasions; the `it's too big to govern or feed itself'; structural, philosophical and so on. The not needing is the key to Chinese humiliation. They really did and do believe they are superior. As Christians feel superior to non-Christians, as Muslims feel superior to Christians and I might say, as Jews feel superior to everybody. Everybody wants that `respec', man.
Winchester says we won't be hearing much about `humiliation' in the future because that old attitude of isolated superiority was already changing in 1989. Now China has opened its gates. It has to: ChinaMobile has over a half a billion cell phone subscribers and adds thousands every week. Good-bye Chinese humiliation, hello China Number ONE: at the Games and in technology, manufacturing and art and science and everything the West is good at. Winchester says isolationism was only a short phase- three hundred years- in a the longest living civilization on earth.
This new Leap Forward won't take long. A look at the long appendix listing China's remarkable inventions from time immemorial- the compass, gunpowder and the printing press for starters, not to mention a thirteenth century protoairplane- is worth the entire book. We are just beginning to feel the power of this vast and brilliant people as they gather themselves, and us, along with the rest of the world, into the shape our common future.
...more info - wow
wo hen xihuan zhege gushi (I really liked this story)! Again a fascinating account of a fascinating man forgotten by history....more info - China and Cambridge
A very readable and excellently researched and written account of the life, adventures and discoveries of the Cambridge don, Joseph Needham...more info - Unacceptable error - how many more?
page 17: Discussing Needham's military obligations in 1918: "he was able, by the great good fortune of the war's coming to an end in August of that year, to make it into the university in October."
Now, the date on which World War I ended is perhaps the most famous date in all history - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, that is, November 11, 1918. Moreover, the months prior to the Armistice saw very heavy fighting, especially for US troops who had only started arriving in late spring of that year. There were in September major offensives at St. Mihiel and on the Meuse-Argonne line involving 300 US tanks and 500 US aircraft, there were major battles involving Italian troops against the forces of Austria-Hungary. Allied forces finally overran the Hindenburg line, Germany's last point of defense, in early October, but it took another month of hard, sanguinary fighting to finally force the abdication of the Kaiser (November 9) and the surrender of Germany which, as noted, became official at 11AM on November 11, 1918.
I am not very knowledgeable about Chinese history. If I read a book about that subject, I therefore must rely on the author's accuracy. How can I have any confidence in an author who gets so famous a date, a date so easily checkable, as the Armistice ending World War I wrong? Indeed, I at first thought I had misread the sentence - he couldn't get that wrong! - but there it was: "the war's coming to an end in August of that year . . ." The one thing that surely ended thereupon was my reading of this book....more info - `The man departs - there remains his Shadow.'
This book should be of interest to both those who are interested in remarkable individuals as well as those interested in the history of Chinese invention.
Joseph Needham (1900-1992), a biochemist with a bright future at Cambridge, became fascinated by Chinese language and history. The story of Joseph Needham, his determination and passion, his relationships, intelligence and eccentricity is interesting of itself. The fact that he turned his formidable investigative intelligence to uncovering China's history of invention has resulted in what is considered to be the greatest work on China so far written in the western world. However, this is still a work in progress and while its breadth is staggering its conclusions are not yet complete.
I am intrigued by Joseph Needham, but I am fascinated by his work in China. Fortunately, in this book, Simon Winchester provides a wealth of suggested reading as well as a list of Chinese inventions and dates they are first mentioned. The list includes: printed books ( 9th century AD); recognition of beriberi (1330 AD); magnetic needle compasses (1088 AD); explanation of camera obscura (1086 AD) and the accurate estimation of Pi (3rd century AD). In the interests of accuracy, some of the listed inventions (such as chess) are disputed.
I read most of Simon Winchester's books: I find his eclecticism energising. I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking to know more about Joseph Needham and his thirst for knowledge of China. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is seeking more information about what was invented in China, and some understanding of the history and culture of this fascinating country. As to why China didn't make more progress earlier as a consequence of its amassed knowledge? That is an entirely different and even more challenging question.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
...more info - terrific biography
This is a fascinating biography of Cambridge University biochemist Joseph Needham. Although married to a scientific peer Dorothy, he fell in love with a student Lu Gwei-djen in the 1930s. She taught him her language and her love for her culture. Needham began exploring the country even as the war with Japan in the late 1930s and 1940s made it unsafe for anyone especially a British professor. Still he continued his travels and soon began to uncover the incredible historical intellect of China, investing new technologies and learning scientific secrets centuries before the west. His efforts led to McCarthy naming him a Communist and banning him from America. That did not stop him as he searched for why an anomaly occurred; while the Renaissance reawakened scientific curiosity in the West, in China suddenly scientific discovery ended. Known as the "Needham Question", this remains unresolved as China explodes into the modern world at am exponential pace that mirrors what it once did during the Middle Kingdom. This is a terrific biography.
Harriet Klausner
...more info - China
Very great read. I could not put it down. It certainly changed my view of Chinese history and innovation....more info - By the Biographer Who Brings Prominence to the Obscure
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....more info - Seeing the Future through the Lenses of the Past
Winchester has, characteristically, written a superbly readable, inevitably simplified, and seriously informative book about both an extraordinary human life and a profoundly important human truth. Joseph Needham was an original - Teddy Roosevelt's physical courage, Charles Darwin's intellectual ambition, George Bernard Shaw's literacy and zest for life in all its dimensions. And he tackled with unbelievable efficacy the gulf between Western self-referential perception of history and the reality of Asia's, and most particularly China's (for in truth India's ancient contributions in mathematics are under explored by both Needham and Winchester), astonishing contributions to the world. This book is a brilliant primer as we enter the Asian Century - a wake up call to those of us who have come to believe that all innovation comes from the West, and will continue to do so. As Winchester, through Needham, demonstrates, neither of these beliefs are true - and the consequences in the near future will be immense.
...more info - I Loved "The Man Who Loved China"
I have recommended this CD set to everyone I think would be interested. This is the story of a brilliant man, a scientist, with an avid curiosity about all aspects of life, but his passion becomes China, her language and her past. Joseph Needham was a Cambridge scholar, a lover of women, an adventurer and wrote the definitive volumes on the scientific contributions China made to civilization. If this sounds dry, believe me, it isn't. Narrated by the author, Simon Winchester, it is written with humor,elegance, and a genuine admiration and enthuiasm for this unique man. Winchester's narration is as crisp and brilliant as his writing. I actually think it is better to hear this book than to read it as his pronunciation of Chinese names and cities is flawless and unless one is familiar with China these strange names could prove stumbling blocks in the reading....more info - Winchester's book-length author's bio of Needham and his opus shortchange both
Biography of Joseph Needham reads something like an extended review of his epic opus "Science and Civilization in China" (24 volumes to date, starting in 1954, and still in progress). Everything in the biography points to this life work, but then at the point when a more extended description and review of this manifold work is in order, Winchester steams to his finish with a chapter describing a political pothole Needham created for himself in the deepest part of the coldest-War McCarthy era, and then a chapter about the end of his career and his final decline and death.
So while Needham's story is fascinating, I left it feeling shortchanged and wanting to know more about both Needham and his book. He was a lifelong small-"s" socialist and even small- "c" communist (and constant supporter of Mao and his Communist revolution), but never a Communist. Yet he appeared to be an unwitting dupe of an anti-American plot that subsequently unclassified Chinese, Korean, and Russian documents have revealed were pure Cold War propaganda set pieces. At least Winchester concludes Needham's unwitting dupehood (dupeness? dupicity?), but I was left wanting to know more about the incident from British archives or other sources (in Winchester's defense, he found during his research that American archives on the incident were still classified at the time of writing).
I would have also have liked to know more about the fact-gathering trips around China made by Needham during his first five-year sojourn there (for example, maps showing key cities and points of discovery on his various routes would be nice), and about subsequent trips made to China on similar fact-finding missions.
Finally, I was left wanting to know more about Science and Civilization itself. Winchester clearly states Needham's purpose in planning and writing of the book: first to document China's many historic firsts in discovery and invention to counteract Western intellectual laziness and presumptive (and spectacularly wrongheaded) NIH snobbishness, and second to answer the question of why, approximately 500 years ago) Chinese inventiveness ground to a halt.
But I want to know more about the product itself. For example, a family tree of the books' titles, volumes, and sub-volumes, and tables of contents would be interesting, and perhaps brief sketches of highlights of each volume. An appendix listing the titles, publication dates, authors and coauthors (nearing the end of his long working life, Needham realized he would be unable to complete the vast work he had envisioned, and subcontracted out writing of sections and entire volumes to other authors) would also be nice.
And finally, while the comparison to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of National Biography is briefly mentioned, as all three are vast multi-volume encyclopedic works that grew out of one man's vision, it would be interesting to know more about these parallels. Particularly interesting, and curiously missing in light of Winchester's earlier bestseller The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary are more parallels to that great work. Surely, in researching and writing these two books Winchester found many more interesting parallels and ideas of concordance and apposition than the brief mention he gives here.
In short, while this was not a bad book, I was left a bit frustrated by these inadequacies, especially from such a well-read and criticly-acclaimed writer....more info - A bit dry on the 'exciting' part
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.
...more info - good half a book
the first half is good, if a little fawning. i mean, needham did have flaws, you know, like being willing to loot a country unable to defend its treasures. but that aside. the second half falls to filler such as going on about ted kaczynski attending one of needham's lectures on gunpowder, and needham's possibly/probably/maybe fictitious meeting with mao.
throughout it's pretty thin on the history and people of the times--it would be useful for most readers if some attention were paid to the major events and figures of that period in china's history.
finally, at the outset of the book, winchester dangles needham's own central question regarding china: why did china, after a long history of invention and innovation, fail to develop industrial technology? so of course one hopes that some answer will be forthcoming. but winchester doesn't return to the question until nearing the end of the book, and then declares it unanswerable. what a letdown.
if you buy the audiobook as i did, enjoy the plummy british accent up until needham leaves china, and then depart yourself....more info - Superbly rearched and written tribute to a great man
I read this book cover to cover in one sitting on a long flight to China. The book is well researched, superbly written, and all together a loving tribute to Joseph Needham, who came alive between the covers. Highly recommended to anyone. ...more info - This is a fascinating story!
Joseph Needham was a bright, elegant, sophisticated scientist with an impeccable pedigree. His work in Cambridge was in biochemistry, a profoundly intense field, and he was a huge and influential success. He was a freethinking intellectual, however, who had predilections for both the decidedly base love of nudism and unique brands of folk dance. With this wide range of interests, he attracted a great deal of attention from colleagues and friends --- and, although married at the time, lovers as well. In 1937 he met Lu Gwei-djen, a Chinese scientist, and they embarked on a long-term, long-distance relationship that first brought him into contact with his beloved China.
Simon Winchester, esteemed author of THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMEN, brings Needam's story and the love that created his most lasting accomplishments to light with profound research and remarkable emotional acuity in THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA.
Winchester is not exactly a flowery writer, but he somehow manages to tell historical tales about deep-thinking men and women through their emotional entanglements. It is this delving into the souls of these high-flying intellectuals that THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA finds its center. Needham is a fascinating character, and Winchester wastes no words in relaying his most fervent desires to understand the "middle kingdom" at a time when China and its eons-old culture was an exotic and strange mystery yet to be solved. From the first chapters, where the foundation is laid for the love that Needham and Gwei-djen shared, to the thrilling episodes of Needham's rough-and-ready travels as a stranger in a strange land, Winchester manages to extrapolate the warmth and heartfelt desire Needham had to mine both in the hearts and minds of the fantastic culture that he brought to light.
In the early part of the 20th century, the many inventions and creative traditions of the Chinese culture and its history were not yet given credit by the masters of industry from First World nations. It was into this morass of misinformation that Needham strode, holding fast to his convictions that Chinese technology and inventions --- which included the compass, suspension bridges and even toilet paper --- were making a quiet but significant mark on the world-at-large. His great tome, SCIENCE AND CIVILISATION IN CHINA, tried to put a face to the timeline of Chinese innovation, and by the time he died, he had created 17 volumes of remarkable information that not only proved his convictions but ensured his spot in the world history books.
Needham's passion is matched by Winchester's sharp and easy-to-read richness of language and scene. They are a perfect pair, and THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA is a thrilling story of yet another eccentric who looked into the void and pulled forth a work built on lust, desire, love, passion and sheer academic brilliance. This is a fascinating story!
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano...more info - Another Tour de Force
Once again Simon WInchester has brought his extraordinary intellect, insatiable curiosity and remarkable eye for detail to bear upon another unique and fascinating subject. His remarkable life as a world class journalist and author has taken him to every corner of the world. Reviewers occasionally try to tag him as a stodgy academic which is far from the truth. Indeed, such a notion is positively ludicrous. Winchester is an adventurer who never stops scanning the horizon for new knowledge and new experiences.
Needham's life encompasses an overlaying of eras; colonial traditions, wars, scientific revolutions and unprecedented social changes. While all went on around him, he documented the cultural and scientific history of a great civilization. The Needham Question asks why China's brilliant technological growth simply stopped around 1500 AD. While the question is fascinating It is hard to comprehend Needham's wholehearted embracing of Chinese communism. Countless young leftists of the 1930s hoped communism would bring real social justice to the masses. Stalinist atrocities and horrors like the Cultural Revolution caused most to look elsewhere for hope, recognizing that tyranny can come in many forms and never brings social justice. Needham viewed the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution as growing pains. Ironically, the priceless collection of books and manuscripts he took back to Cambridge would likely have been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. Underlying some protests he made against the regime, he still hoped for a better future for the people of China.
Now, more than ever before our understanding of China in all its complexities is crucial. Winchester brings that understanding to his readers with skill and eloquence. Surely Needham would have been delighted and proud to have such a biographer tell his story. Winchester is without doubt one of the great writers of our time.
This is a great read to be taken slowly, pondered and savored. At a time when China's actions are so very controversial, it is worthwhile to remember that while China's human rights record is more than a little repugnant, there is much to appreciate and understand about a culture rooted in 5,000 years of history. Without China's role in world history, our lives would be radically different.
As the book was launched, worldwide riots and protests denounced China's treatment of Tibet and the Tibetan people. Rightly so. (Not that America has much to brag about these days. Guantanamo, Guantanamo, Guantanamo.) Winchester was in the unenviable position of promoting a title that spoke of love and China when the world has little love to offer China. Perhaps, a deeper international understanding will lead to full and inalienable human rights world wide and most particularly in China and America. Without doubt, to read this book is to gain wider, richer perspectives of today's world. Yet, it is impossible to suppress a shudder as his epilogue ends. This soaring exploration of the Needham question, ends with the chilling description of a sign outside of China's space center, Jiuquan, "Without Haste. Without Fear. We Conquer The World."
Sue Morrow Flanagan...more info - Must read for all China enthusiasts!
This is a great book covering Joseph Needham, Ph.D. and his life work on 19 volumes of "Science and Civilization in China", Caius College, Cambridge University, UK.
His personal life is interesting. He has a wife who is into biochemical research, and has several paramours. The second marriage with Lu Gwei-djen was a great read. Lu waited for him, her whole life.
If China invented all of these scientific products, then what is the reason that China fell behind western countries in the last 50 years?
It is communism, that killed all the innovation. Cultural revolution and gang of four destroyed China's science and technology. Mao Zedong is the major problem for the lack of leadership.
History changes after Deng XiaoPing took charge. Deng was the major force for economic reform.
Unfortunately, Joseph Needham was either too old, or too much involved in the old China. He totally missed the new China development. He passed away in 1995, and that is when the new China started to take off.
...more info - Not so good
Okay, I've read two books by this guy and frankly, he's a hack. He has this obvious device of constantly creating false tension and the payoff is almost always disappointing. There is no real story here; nothing that could not be told in 1/3 the number of pages, quite possibly less, and even then, probably not worth the read....more info - REVIEW OF SIMON WINCHESTER'S THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA BY JOHN CHUCKMAN
This is a good read. Simon Winchester provides a tight and fairly vigorous story of the remarkable man, Joseph Needham.
Needham was a brilliant man, gifted in science and languages. He was also a genuine non-conformist, both in his personal life and in political affairs, and he had the fabled abilities of a great scholar to sit for all hours of the day, day after day, analyzing ancient texts and writing world-recognized works about what he discovered.
Needham had the good fortune of being appointed by the British government, as a scientist of world reputation, on a mission to unoccupied China during World War II. His task was to contact as many Chinese academics as possible and help them obtain the resources, provided by the British government, they needed to carry on their work. This was both war-time assistance and an investment in future relations.
As in any effort he undertook, Needham quickly went to work with great vigor. He made a couple of epic journeys across large stretches of China and a number of smaller ones. He contacted many people of note, helping scientists and scholars obtain equipment and supplies to keep their efforts going under the great privations of war.
But, at the same time, he also did something else very important. He collected, wherever he found them and could purchase them, ancient Chinese texts which went back to England with him. Very early the idea struck him of writing a scholarly work on the ancient contributions of China to technology and science.
Needham was such an impressive intellect and so clearly in love with China - he typically wore gowns styled after the gowns worn by Chinese scholars and spoke fluent Mandarin and was bursting with enthusiasm about the things he saw and discovered - that a number of Chinese who only met him briefly were motivated to collect, long after he went home to England, and send him great quantities more of truly precious historical materials.
Needham's great project, a virtual encyclopedia of the history of Chinese science and technology, was never finished by him, but the volumes he did write were immediately embraced by the academic world as important new contributions to knowledge, and the work remains a classic.
Needham discovered - then unknown outside China - that the Chinese had invented a remarkable number of things before they were discovered in Europe. Moveable type - first in the ninth century as wood, later as bronze - was perhaps the most remarkable of these, but there were literally hundreds of others including an early compass and some very early sophisticated mathematics.
Needham's volumes became an important East Asian collection in the libraries of Cambridge University.
An interesting anecdote in the book, unrelated to the subject, concerns Needham's tours to lecture on his discoveries. One was to Chicago, and author Winchester discovered that Theodore Kaczynski, the gifted mathematician who later sank into deep schizophrenia and became the infamous Unabomber living in the wilderness, attended a lecture.
Winchester speculates whether that lecture, including a discussion of gunpowder as it did, might have influenced Kaczynski later. I did think this speculation a bit na?ve and a bit of research would have eliminated it. Kaczynski grew up in Chicago, as I did, and as a teenager he made the newspapers with the sophisticated rockets he was building. His rockets were made of metal and used fuel more sophisticated than gunpowder, becoming a subject of interest because they climbed over a mile in altitude, possibly threatening civilian aviation. It seems pretty clear he did not need Needham's lecture on gunpowder.
My only regret about this book is that it was too brief. Needham and his adventures and work are a large subject.
...more info - Right Up Winchester's Alley
If you look back at the titles of some of Mr. Winchester's older books, it's clear that Joseph Needham, the subject of this book, isn't the only man who loves China. Clearly, Winchester himself has a fascination for Asia and China. Admittedly, I have not read these earlier titles, having come to Mr. Winchester--like many I suspect--through the pages of The Professor and the Madman. However, I have kept up with his work since then and it's nice to see him able to bring his passion for China to the fore again.
Today, Joseph Needham is most remembered for the decades he spent putting together Science and Civilization in China, a series of books documenting the many advances made in China that pre-date the better known inventions/inventors in the West. What this ultimately means, as it was the West that took widest advantage of scientific and technical successes, is open to debate; however, it is fascinating to think about how far ahead the Chinese must have been at various points in their history, even into antiquity. A less inward-looking culture might have changed the entire face of world history.
Mr. Winchester gives us tidbits of these scientific facts to contemplate, but this book is really about Needham himself: a Cambridge scholar who was undoubtedly brilliant but in many ways controversial. He was very sexually liberated for his time, being married to a devoted woman who tolerated his many affairs, including a long-term affair with a Chinese woman, Lu Gwei-djen, who was likely the inspiration for much of his passion about China. He was sympathetic to communism and maintained a connection to communist China even when such a relationship was frowned upon. He dabbled in realpolitik which often caused him grief. But in the end, it is his work that is best remembered.
He started his career as a very successful scientist who parlayed his success and love of China into a diplomatic assignment to the country at the height of World War II. In the midst of his diplomatic duties--being a materials conduit for Chinese scientists--he made a number of trips across China, collecting information and artifacts which he periodically shipped home. When he returned, instead of resuming his scientific work, he devoted the rest of his life to history, assessing the materials he'd brought back and writing his magnum opus.
Mr. Winchester has an amazing facility for telling the stories of eccentrics and science. Here, he shows his skills yet again. This is a wonderfully readable book about a comparatively unknown scholar who deserves better. Mr. Winchester has done Needham--and the reading public--a real service....more info - Cashing on Beijing Olympics
Should have been called the Biography of Joseph Needham. And if it were, it would still be a poorly written one, though it would benefit from a more accurate title.
You don't learn about China enough in this book to appreciate the man or his work. I wanted to gleam about the wonder that is china. Failed there.
This book evidently was released with the primary reason of cashing in on the news item that China is in the wake of the Olympics. It hardly has anything substantiative in it.
For somebody who had read Winchester work on Krakatoa, which was obviously Superb, this one make one want to blow the top off in disappointment.
He fails my expectation....more info - Not up to expectations
"The Man Who Loved China" failed to live up to my expectations and the various glowing reviews I read of the book. The book was slow to pick up steam and then wrapped up about 50 years of his life in the last 50 pages. I am sure a full historical biography of Joseph Needham would be very interesting, but the story as presented here felt more like a pumped up magazine article with very little detail or in depth research. ...more info - The Most Amazing Man You've Never Heard Of
After hearing an interview on our local NPR affiliate with Simon Winchester, I bought this book in audio format in preparation for a long road trip. We were spellbound by this incredible story, listening almost non-stop to the 14 hour production. If you've never heard of Joseph Needham, don't feel bad - neither had we, or most anyone else I've asked. But he was one of the most interesting, eccentric, and brilliant people of the 20th century. The story is beautifully told by Simon Winchester, with anecdotes and historical background that amaze you. Such a detailed biography could stumble into confusing territory, but not in Winchester's skilled hands. The plot, Needham's life, unfolds in wondrous and surprising ways; I must have exclaimed 50 times "how could I not have known about this??" And the revelations about China are fascinating too - the remarkable history of an enlightened scientific culture, its slide into communism, and its economic resurgence. I strongly recommend this book....more info - The Man Who Loved China
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...more info - The Man Who Revealed China To The World
Simon Winchester can always be counted on for an extraordinary reading treat. In The Man Who Loved China we have his best work since The Professor and the Madman.
Joseph Needham was a brilliant scientist and a remarkable eccentric. He could be affable one moment and withdrawn the next, he practiced nudism and had a very "modern" interpretation of his marriage vows, an interpretation his wife shared and which led to a menage a trois which lasted for decades. Most of all, Needham was a lover of China and of China's scientific gifts to the world. During World War II he was sent to China at the behest of the British and American Armed Forces to re-connect with the professors and other staff members of Chinese universities which had been evacuated during the war with Japan. During his adventures, which Winchester provides a marvelous description of, Needham became convinced that China was the originator of much of what has become modern science. He spent the last fifty years or so of his very long life writing an extraordinary multi-volume work, which is still in the process of publication, on science in Chinese civilization.
As always, Winchester has a keen eye for a good anecdote and a clear and witty writing style. He does an excellent job depicting Needham's extraordinary life, both his heights of achievement and his lows, such as the time his naivete about politics led to his being conned by Soviet propaganda and then black-listed for years by the US government, so that he was unable to visit the many American universities which wished to honor him. Winchester also reveals the many interconnections and odd conjunctions with which Needham's life was filled, for example his connection with the creation of the term "gung-ho" and the unwitting (and innocent) assistance he gave the Unabomber.
I teach AP World History, which of necessity spends much time on China. I am grateful to Joseph Needham for doing so much to reveal that land's multitudinous gifts to the world and to Simon Winchester for writing so engaging a biography of this complex, fascinating man. ...more info - A Good First Try
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 naivet¨¦. 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...more info - China is once again emerging as a major player in the family of nations
China is once again emerging as a major player in the family of nations. But certain questions have lingered with scholars and historians. Why did China, a nation which was so inventive and which experienced five thousand years of a flourishing civilization, fail to establish an industrial revolution similar to that of the west, thereby spending the decades of the 19th and 20th century mired in poverty, revolution, and instability? Joseph Needham was a respected Cambridge scholar and scientist who in 1937 fell in love with a visiting Chinese study and through his mistress became interested in her home country. By the time he died, Needham has authored seventeen volumes on China and cited by the academic community as a singular expert on Chinese history, culture, and society. "The Man Who Loved China" is the deftly written biography of a most extraordinary man and this flawlessly produced, complete and unabridged, nine hour audio book, written and read by Simon Winchester, provides an informed and informative story of an eccentric scientist whose dedication and meticulous scholarship explained the mysteries of China to the world. This superb CD audio book edition of "The Man Who Loved China" is highly recommended for personal, academic, and community library collections....more info - man behind the legend
How lucky we are to have a book about the man who changed the way the West viewed China. Having stuided Needham's work in graduate school I was fascinated and amazed at all he discovered and often wondered about the scientific scholar with such outstanding abilities.
Winchester writes well and gives us an intimate look into the man who certainly fit the sterotypical picture of the eccentric Englishman. His works (carried on by his disciples) continues today and is still the gold standard for those interested in the history and civilization of China....more info - How much do you know about China?
The less you know about China, the more you'll enjoy this book.
If you didn't know that the Chinese invented and/or discovered moveable type, gunpowder, the compass, playing cards, toilet paper, mouth organs and bookworm repellent -- among other things -- this isn't a bad place to start.
But if you already know a bit about China, you'll find this account of the life and loves of Joseph Needham (author of the magisterial SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA)extremely frustrating.
Not that the man wasn't interesting. On the contrary, Needham provides plenty of grist for all but the most unimaginative biographer's mill. A brilliant, English biochemist teaching at Cambridge, he fell in love with one of his Chinese graduate students and through her, with China. (The student moved in with Needham and his wife Dorothy -- who apparently approved of the relationship -- to form a lifelong menage a trois. Now, I find that interesting. Winchester apparently didn't.) Having taught himself Chinese (no small feat)Needham traveled to China during WWII and after, and subsequently engaged in the extensive research that gave rise to his encyclopedic study of Chinese science. All while continuing to teach at Cambridge and live happily ever after with Dorothy and Lu Gwei-djen. Today their ashes, commingled, lie beneath a tree at the Needham Research Institute at Cambridge.
Joseph Needham was not your ordinary, boring Cambridge don. Yet despite Simon Winchester's always readable prose, the man vanishes into the life. We learn all about what he did, but precious little about who he was, and even less about what made him that way. Much is left unsaid. Too much, I thought. Some books tell you much more about their subject than you really want to know. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them.
Joseph Needham still awaits his biographer.
...more info - Fascinating book of captivating man
This is a fascinating book about a person I had never heard of. Joseph Needham was a brilliant British scientist who made significant contributions to biochemistry while still in his early twenties. He was also a boisterous character -- a nudist, progressive Christian, committed socialist, Morris dancer, fluent in several languages and believer in open marriage. Above all, he was full of energy and intellectual curiosity.
The turning point in Needham's life came when he met a young Chinese scientist, Lu Gwei-djen, in 1938. He not only fell in love with her, although he'd been happily married to a fellow scientist for several years, but made the decision to learn fluent Chinese. Lying in bed together, she was his first teacher. This led Needham to his life's work, the compilation of a huge, multi-volumed work on the history of science in China which transformed the way the world looked at Chinese history and civilization. Incidentally, Needham managed to a sustain loving relationships with both women until the end of their lives, aparently with all three getting along comfortably with each other.
During the Second World War, Needham was sent by the British government to China to formed links with Chinese universities, then under terrible pressure from the invading Japanese, to help them with supplies of books and materials. During his years there, he was able to make several epic journeys, well described by Winchester, penetrating far-flung corners of the huge country, making interesting discoveries along the way.
His massive study, which began appearing in the 1950s. It had grown to 18 volumes by the time Needham died in 1995 and now stands at 24. Needham was the one who informed the world that the Chinese had invented gunpowder, printing and the compass centuries before the West and also blast furnaces, arched bridges, crossbows, vaccination against smallpox, toilet paper, wheelbarrows, stirrups and a thousand other things.
This book is a wonderful window on one of the great minds of the 20th century. For anyone who wants to understand more about China and meet this brilliant and captivating man, I recommend this book.
For more on me and my latest book, The Nazi Hunter: A Novel go to www.alanelsner.com....more info - Interesting, but not really worth your time
Simon Winchester has apparently tried to repeat the success of his Professor and the Madman, but has unfortunately failed. This appears to be for two primary reasons:
1. While the Madman (W.C. Minor) was obviously unsympathetic, our Professor Needham starts out all bright and downy, and becomes less so in the course of the telling. Young, obviously gifted, and with the outsize enthusiasms that accompany genius, he is a pleasant protagonist. His eccentricities (morris dancing, nudism, polygamy, Christian socialism) fall within the pale of what a detached reader is willing to accept in another human, as long as he is not married to their sister. However, his narcissistic personality, ivory-tower egoism, and naive sense of entitlement grow old very quickly. How confusing to discover that all your old academic friends in post-Cultural Revolution China cannot be located (at least, above ground).
2. The story that Needham enshrined, "China did it first", has mostly to do with discovering the then-current batch of oldest surviving documents. It also has been overcome by new discoveries, such as the Antikythera mechanism. Here, Winchester is at fault for his uncritical acceptance and use of simplistic generalizations about the world history of applied philosophy. Winchester paints with a very broad brush that lacks meaningful context.
An interesting, somewhat amusing, and eventually quite annoying book....more info - What prevented the rise of modern science in China?
The answer to the question was right in front of Dr. Needham as he travelled around China in American products, such as a C-47 transport airplane by Douglas, an American jeep from Willys, and a Chevrolet truck. Dr. Needham never figured out that freedom is essentail to scientific development. Of course, Dr. Needham was a socialist and socialists never invented anything....more info
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