Overview

"This volume questions the universal belief that England's 1840-42 war with China was an ""opium war"". What really worried London was ""insults to the crown"", the claim of a dilapidated and corrupt China to be superior to everyone, threats to British men and women and seizure of British property, plus the wish to expand and free trade everywhere. It was only much later that general Chinese resentment and Evangelical opinion at home and in America persuaded everyone that Britain had indeed been wicked and fought for opium."

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9781403907004

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Reviews

'...timely, intelligent, unprejudiced and readable...this is a work of intellectual as much as diplomatic history and readers will enjoy seeing old orthodoxies subverted and ingrained prejudices dissipated by Dr Gelber's persuasive insinuation of reason.' - Professor S.A.M. Adshead, University of Canterbury, New Zealand '...a well written, sharp-eyed and thoughtful treatment of a subject which continues to arouse interest and controversy among historians.' - Professor John Gregory, author of The West and China Since 1500 'Harry Gelber shows how opium was only the immediate cause of war in a conflict which was far more about the gulf between British and Chinese views of international order and the rules of trade. I enjoyed reading it immensely.' - Professor Lord William Wallace, London School of Economics and Political Science

Author Information

HARRY G. GELBER is Professor of History and Political Science and Visiting Research Fellow at the Asian Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Economy. His publications include Australia, Britain and the EEC, 1961-1963, National Power, Security and Economic Uncertainty, and Sovereignty Through Interdependence .

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