The Lost Empire of Atlantis
Menzies, a former sailor in the British Royal Navy, has carved a lucrative literary career by seizing upon a few tantalizing facts and then making gigantic leaps to unwarranted conclusions. Previously he has asserted that a Chinese admiral “discovered” America and sparked the Renaissance by visiting Italy. In the process, of course, he has infuriated professional historians. Here Menzies turns his attention to the ancient Mediterannean and the Minoan civilization that flourished on the island of Crete in the second millennium B.C. Again using the flimsiest of evidence, he asserts that this Bronze Age, highly localized culture was linked to the mythical “lost continent” of Atlantis, which was at the center of an immense global trading empire extending north to Britain and west to North America. Still, this will be a fun book for some. It includes brave, adventurous mariners and a dramatic natural disaster (probably the most accurate of Menzies’ claims). As a wild piece of historical speculation, this is enjoyable, but it is closer to science fiction than real history. --Jay Freeman