When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail

Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China. Indeed, the furious trade in furs, opium, and beche-de-mer--a rare sea cucumber delicacy--might have catalyzed America's emerging economy, but it also sparked an ecological and human rights catastrophe of such epic proportions that the reverberations can still be felt today. Peopled with fascinating characters--from the "Financier of the Revolution" Robert Morris to the Chinese emperor Qianlong, who considered foreigners inferior beings--this page-turning saga of pirates and politicians, coolies and concubines becomes a must-read for any fan of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower or Mark Kurlansky's Cod.

Author: Eric Jay Dolin
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 09/03/2013
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9780871406897
ISBN10: 0871406896
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | 19th Century
- History | Asia | China
- Political Science | International Relations | Trade & Tariffs