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When America First Met China
An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
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When America First Met China
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships.
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Description
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 bΓͺche-de-merβa rare sea cucumber delicacyβmight have catalysed 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 charactersβfrom the "Financier of the Revolution" Robert Morris to the Chinese emperor Qianlong, who considered foreigners inferior beingsβthis 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.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
When America First Met China by Eric Jay Dolin has received acclaim for its well-researched and engaging exploration of early US-China relations. The book is praised for its rich narrative style and ability to weave intricate historical events involving trade, piracy, and diplomacy into a lively and accessible story. Reviewers appreciate Dolin's capacity to illuminate the origins of the complex relationship between the two nations and its relevance to contemporary global politics.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780871406897
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 October 2013
Country: United States
Imprint: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Illustration: 16 pages of color, 83 black-and-white illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 28.0mm
Width: 142.0mm
Height: 211.0mm
Weight: 438g
Pages: 432
About the Author
Eric Jay Dolin is the author of Leviathan: The History of Whaling In America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, and also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History; and Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. He is also the author of When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in environmental policy, he lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.
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