The Qing Empire and the Opium War by Haijian Mao, Joseph Laws... - 9781107069879

The Qing Empire and the Opium WarThe Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty\nAuthor(s): Haijian Mao, Joseph Lawson, Craig Smith, Peter Lavelle, Julia Lovell\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781107069879, 978-1107069879\nSynopsis\nThe Opium War of [tel], the first military conflict to take place between China and the West, is a subject of enduring interest. Mao Haijian, one of the most distinguished and well-known historians working in China, presents the culmination of more than ten years of research in a revisionist reading of the conflict and its main Chinese protagonists. Mao examines the Qing participants in terms of the moral standards and intellectual norms of their own time, demonstrating that actions which have struck later observers as ridiculous can be understood as reasonable within these individuals' own context. This English-language translation of Mao's work offers a comprehensive response.