The Opium War

By Julia Lovell

The first half of this book is an excellent telling of the details of the Opium War that the British Empire and China fought in the mid 19th Century. It is pretty balanced and very interesting. The second half is an attempt to prove the authors thesis that losing the opium war still influences China’s foreign policy today.Maybe but it didn’t convince me. Perhaps it does in the way that having had slavery still influences American domestic policy. But it is not the only influence and trying to make it so appears forced to me.

Six on my arbitrary scale.