Opium, State, and Society: China's Narco-Economy and the Guomindang, 1924-1937 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780824823610)

Surprisingly little has been written about the complicated relationship between opium and China and its people. Opium, State, and Society goes a long way toward illuminating this relationship in the Republican period, when all levels of Chinese society--from peasants to school teachers, merchants, warlords, and ministers of finance--were physically or economically dependent on the drug.

The centerpiece of this study is an investigation of the symbiotic relationship that evolved between opium and the Guomindang's rise to power in the years 1924-1937. Despite attempts to find other sources of revenue, the Guomindang became increasingly addicted to the tax monies derived from the drug trade prior to the war with Japan. Based solidly on a previously untapped reservoir of archival sources from the People's Republic and Taiwan, this work critically analyzes the complex realities of a government policy that vacillated between prohibition and legalization, and ultimately sought to curtail the cultivation, sale, and consumption of opium through a government monopoly.

Author: Edward R. Slack
ISBN-10: 0824823613
ISBN-13: 9780824823610
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2000
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.20w x 0.64d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2001 pg. 1847
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2001 pg. 141