The Opium War

Informative and a sometimes riveting narrative style delivery but verged at times to sarcasm aimed at both the Chinese and the British. No doubt deserved but maybe a little too obvious for my liking. I would add that the 2nd Opium War received one far too short chapter.
The final couple of chapters, consisting of discussion on how the Chinese used the Opium Wars for propaganda purposes, was interesting but were far too long when there was a very good story of the entire wars to be told. Maybe the author had lost patience with the original story. A very good timeline, good footnotes and an excellent bibliography finished a good if flawed book.