The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China

An engaging, highly readable, character-driven account of the war that transformed China, and which continues to loom large over modern Chinese history.
In October 1839, a Windsor cabinet meeting votes to begin the first Opium War against China. Bureaucratic fumbling, military missteps, and a healthy dose of political opportunism and collaboration followed. Rich in tragicomedy, The Opium War explores the disastrous British foreign-relations move that became a founding myth of modern Chines…