<![CDATA[The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece]]>

false <![CDATA[The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece]]> 2763494 11 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. 2186427 1 5 2008 The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece total:398|5:66|4:169|3:122|2:36|1:5| 398 1449 793 137 4 4 false false Thu Sep 18 16:23:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 18 16:36:04 -0700 2008
In a world where the next Vice President of the USA (or President if the Bible’s ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jan 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 13:48:15 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 14:01:58 -0800 2009 ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 14:38:24 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 19:06:18 -0700 2008 Science & Civilisation In China. In a wildly stormy life that veered from being a founding father of UNESCO to meetings with Mao & Zhou EnLai before there was a...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jun 18 08:42:27 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 06 09:21:22 -0800 2009 Science and Civilization in China. He spent much of his life trying to make the western world understand that China has a rich history of science and technological development. I...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Nov 24 09:36:49 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 09:38:56 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Wed Mar 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 06:32:12 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 06:33:28 -0700 2009 Science and Civilisation in Ancient China, the author quotes former U.S. Secretary of State John Hay’s 1899 statement that China was the “storm center of the world,” ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 22 06:40:22 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 08:39:55 -0700 2009
...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 14:22:37 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 14:42:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 19:29:13 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 20:02:59 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 17:48:51 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 17:49:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 16:54:57 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 18:02:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 22 18:10:21 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 20:58:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 17:49:30 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 07:17:05 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 07:37:32 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 07:37:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 06:48:58 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 09:16:49 -0700 2009 I'd read almost anything by Simon Winchester. You wouldn't think that a book about a man who WROTE a book ("a" book - ha ha) would be that interesting without, say, a parallel story about a fiendish murderer, but again Winchester takes what could be...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:58:59 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:58:59 -0800 2009 With The Man Who Loved China, Simon Winchester turns out another compelling, readable, and relevant tale. Any good storyteller will embellish his subject, and Winchester effortlessly keeps readers interested in Needham's adventures��even when they flag a bit. For the most part, though, Needham's li...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 23:06:17 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 21:58:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 05:36:30 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 05:49:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu May 28 06:52:15 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 06:58:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 14 08:56:26 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 08:59:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2763494