America's First Adventure in China: Trade, Treaties, Opium, and Salvation - Hardcover

Haddad, John R

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439906890 ISBN 13: 9781439906897

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2013

Synopsis

In 1784, when Americans first voyaged to China, they confronted Chinese authorities who were unaware that the United States even existed. Nevertheless, a long, complicated, and fruitful trade relationship was born after American traders, missionaries, diplomats, and others sailed to China with lofty ambitions: to acquire fabulous wealth, convert China to Christianity, and even command a Chinese army. In America's First Adventure in China, John Haddad provides a colourful history of the evolving cultural exchange and interactions between these countries. He recounts how American expatriates adopted a pragmatic attitude - as well as an entrepreneurial spirit and improvisational approach - to their dealings with the Chinese. Haddad shows how opium played a potent role in the dreams of Americans who either smuggled it or opposed its importation, and he considers the missionary movement that compelled individuals to accept a hard life in an alien culture. As a result of their efforts, Americans achieved a favourable outcome - they established a unique presence in China - and cultivated a relationship whose complexities continue to grow. John Haddad is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Popular Culture at Penn State Harrisburg. He was awarded the Gutenberg-e Prize in 2002 for his dissertation, which was published as The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876.

About this title

Review:

""America's First Adventure in China" is a well written, succinct, and elegant book. Haddad brings a fresh approach to--and makes a convincing case for his characterization of--the American presence in China. He describes how the Americans were isolated individuals acting pretty much on their own and with nothing in the way of state, military, or other institutional support. Their experience--operating in a fog of ignorance about a world to which they had only the most limited access--is significant, and he explains why the American experience diverged from rather than followed on the British model." --Peter Buck, Senior Lecturer (retired) on the History of Science, Harvard University

About the Author:

John R. Haddad is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Popuar Culture at Penn State Harrisburg. He was awarded the Gutenberg-e Prize in 2002 for his dissertation, which was published as "The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776-1876. "In 2010, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and research at the University of Hong Kong.

About this edition

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1439906890
• ISBN 13: 9781439906897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264