Opium and China are synonymous, yet historians have so far failed to answer one key
question: why was opium rather than cannabis or coffee so eagerly consumed? l Much has …

Jordan Goodman has underlined that next to nothing is known concerning how and why
Europeans consumed coffee, chocolate and tea and how and why that consumption was …

The history of opium is a major theme in modern Chinese history. Books and academic
careers have been devoted to its study. Yet the question that scholars of the opium wars and …

Opium was, in the nineteenth century, one of the most empire-friendly com modities
circulating in the global economy. It had the capacity to balance impe rial books, attract a …

Opium altered the course of Chinese history and has thus fascinated generations of
historians. But until the first decade of the twenty-first century, few scholars asked exactly …

Opium addiction in China during the closing decades of the Ch'ing dynasty afflicted all
segments of society. From government officials to farmers, the population fell prey to the …

Zhang Rui moved from Tianjin to Beijing to open a fish shop just inside the Desheng Gate.
On a visit home to Tianjin in late November 1844, he encountered a boatman dealing in …

Opium is more than just a drug extracted from poppies. Over the past two centuries it has
been a palliative medicine, an addictive substance, a powerful mechanism for concentrating …

A social problem in one country may often be held up as an example to others, but it is rare
for it to bring forth an internationally coordinated response with a world-wide application …

" The British opium trade along China's seacoast has come to symbolize China's century-
long descent into political and social chaos. In the standard historical narrative, opium is the …