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Binding: HardcoverDewey 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 Studio: Harper 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:  - 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. ... Read More Rating:  - Winchester's book-length author's bio of Needham and his opus shortchange bothBiography 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 ... Read More Rating: - 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, ... Read More Rating: - Keys to ChinaAt 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 ... Read More Rating: - REVIEW OF SIMON WINCHESTER'S THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA BY JOHN CHUCKMANThis 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 ... Read More |
