Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 The Man Who Loved China July 13, 2008
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
 An eccentric visionary July 12, 2008
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 Most Amazing Man You've Never Heard Of July 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Right Up Winchester's Alley July 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
A Good First Try July 1, 2008
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
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