Foreign Mud
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: No dust jacket. Page Condition: Yellowed, some moisture stains on block. Markings: Previous owner. Binding condition: Good.
In the smoky trading houses of Canton in the 1830s, a collision of empires was brewing — one that would be ignited by opium and settled by gunfire. Foreign Mud chronicles the dramatic entanglement of British merchants, Chinese imperial officials, and the East India Company in the years leading up to the First Opium War, presenting a richly detailed account of how greed, sovereignty, and cultural arrogance conspired to reshape Asia's destiny. Maurice Collis reconstructs the crisis with forensic precision, drawing on primary sources to illuminate the political machinations and moral contradictions that drove Britain to war in defence of an illegal drug trade. Collis writes with the authority of a seasoned historian and the narrative grace of a storyteller, crafting a work that sits at the intersection of imperial history and moral inquiry. His portrait of Commissioner Lin Zexu — the incorruptible Chinese official who dared to destroy British opium stocks — stands as one of the most compelling character studies in colonial historiography. Foreign Mud remains an essential text for understanding the origins of modern Sino-British relations, and it leaves the reader questioning whether the war that followed was ever truly about trade at all.
Author: Maurice Collis
Format: Hardback
Published: 1956, Faber and Faber Limited
Genre: Asian history
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: No dust jacket. Page Condition: Yellowed, some moisture stains on block. Markings: Previous owner. Binding condition: Good.
In the smoky trading houses of Canton in the 1830s, a collision of empires was brewing — one that would be ignited by opium and settled by gunfire. Foreign Mud chronicles the dramatic entanglement of British merchants, Chinese imperial officials, and the East India Company in the years leading up to the First Opium War, presenting a richly detailed account of how greed, sovereignty, and cultural arrogance conspired to reshape Asia's destiny. Maurice Collis reconstructs the crisis with forensic precision, drawing on primary sources to illuminate the political machinations and moral contradictions that drove Britain to war in defence of an illegal drug trade. Collis writes with the authority of a seasoned historian and the narrative grace of a storyteller, crafting a work that sits at the intersection of imperial history and moral inquiry. His portrait of Commissioner Lin Zexu — the incorruptible Chinese official who dared to destroy British opium stocks — stands as one of the most compelling character studies in colonial historiography. Foreign Mud remains an essential text for understanding the origins of modern Sino-British relations, and it leaves the reader questioning whether the war that followed was ever truly about trade at all.