The Opium War

A brilliant account of the two Opium Wars showing how they have been remembered in particular ways in order to make modern political points. Lovell shows us how political operators on both sides used the question of the opium trade to further their own interests. It exposes the nasty business of imperialism but also takes down a lot of myths about the wars. The book allows us to see the conflicts both in terms of what happened at the time, and how views over those events changed over the following century and a half. She explores the international history of… show more.

To many in China today, the outbreak of the first Opium War in 1839 marks the beginning of China’s “century of humiliation”. As such, the subject remains highly charged. In this book, Julia Lovell offers a lively and very readable account of the war that would set the terms of the Qing empire’s relationship with the European powers. Crucially, she does this by focusing on the Chinese as well as the British side. The book is also very good on the ways that the opium wars passed into collective memory, both in Victorian Britain (when opium smoking became shorthand for… show more.

No single event in nineteenth-century China looms as large in the imagination of nineteenth-century China as the Opium War. Initially begun by China’s efforts to stem the tide of illegal opium imported by British traders from India, the Opium War is traditionally viewed as a watershed moment that transformed China from a period of imperial grandeur to a century of decline. The prize-winning British scholar, Julia Lovell, manages to highlight both China’s heroic attempt to end the empire’s addiction to opium and the British empire’s overwhelming need to offset the trade deficit caused by its insatiable desire for China’s tea.… show more.