When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail - Hardcover

Eric Jay Dolin is the author of the bestselling Leviathan: The History of Whaling In America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal, and was chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the top ten history books of 2007. Leviathan also won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, and the 23rd Annual L. Byrne Waterman Award, given by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, for outstanding contributions to whaling research and history. His last book, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America, was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and the Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the best nonfiction books of 2010, and it also won the 2011 James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in environmental policy, he lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

“Starred review. A rich, highly readable examination of the seeds of poppies, trade, greed, grandeur and an international partnership that remains uneasy and perilous.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“A smart, riveting history of what has become the most important bilateral relationship in the world.... An all-around outstanding work of maritime history.”
- Douglas Brinkley, author of Cronkite

“Master storyteller Eric Jay Dolin brings to life the American genius for commerce and its essential connection to how the nation grew... this is a timely and well-told tale.”
- Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About®History

“Eric Jay Dolin has a special talent for unearthing the fascinating but forgotten origins of our current cultural obsessions and now hes done it again. This fast-paced and deeply researched book is a must-read for anyone interested in Americas long history of competition and cooperation with China.”
- Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America

“A tantalizing high-sea yarn of fast-running clippers and murderous pirates and a profound meditation on an international relationship that still absorbs our attention today. Fresh, gripping, pelagically capacious.”
- Yunte Huang, author of Charlie Chan

“Fascinating, compelling, and engrossing.”
- Joan Druett, author of Island of the Lost

“Fast-moving... focuses on intriguing anecdotes and personal vignettes, featuring colorful subjects such as pirates, drug runners, and slave traders, as well as those engaged in more salubrious pursuits. ...[E]ntertaining.”
- Publishers Weekly

“This sweeping popular history... brews up a rich and satisfying narrative of the exotic intersection of the silk, tea, and opium trade and the missionary zeal that characterized America’s engagement with the still mysterious ‘Middle Kingdom’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With a flair for dramatic and fast-paced storytelling, Dolin provides the reader with nuanced insights into everything from pirates, the world-changing impact of the silk trade, the British-Chinese Opium War of the 1840s, and the fearlessness (and naiveté) of the early missionaries to good old-fashioned tales of adventure on the high seas.”
- Booklist

“A diligent researcher... Dolin has uncovered some fascinating nuggets about the history of US-China trade.”
- Matthew Price, Boston Globe

“Fascinating and entertaining... masterful history... His work is well-researched, rich in illustrations and full of life.”
- Tom Zelman, Minneapolis Star and Tribune