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

By Eric Jay Dolin

Book Overview

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 b che-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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871404338
• ISBN13: 9780871404336
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

China made America GREAT - then and now!!

It is an important history of interaction of Sino-American relation after Chinese tea ignited the Boston Tea Party for American Independence. American traders made their fortune in China and this trade made America Great!! Along with their British cousins, American families pushed opium to get them hooked and they fought lost wars on the gunboat diplomacy and trade land and silver for peace. The wealthiest Howqua was the Godfather with American godsons. The Ivy League universities had Chinese black gold shadows, including Forbes and Roosevelt families. The vast Chinese market for American goods did not materialize, instead Chinese goods make American modern lives inexpensive and comfortable. China rise not in American image and Trump initiated trade, propaganda, and cold war on China, hysteria that all Chinese in America is communist government agent, a recycle playbook of red scare of Mccarthy!! Reading this book of history help understand the present and the truth! Huawei 5 G steal hi tech as America cell offers no 5 G. The robbers accuse others as robbers - who had 5 eyes coalition? The truth will set you free!! China MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!