Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America by Dael A. Norwood

From the beginning of its history, the United States has been connected to China in various ways, the most important being commerce. Norwood’s impressive Trading Freedom explores this vital and complicated connection by taking overseas trade as not only the ideal form of transnational interaction but also as a continuation of domestic and international politics. Focusing on the first century of the U.S. trade with China, Norwood delves into the vicissitudes of this rich history by examining how a wide range of interacting variables (like characters, policies, institutions, structures, and incidents) changed the flow of goods, people, and ideas from the Confederation era to the Gilded Age. Essentially an integrated and historically grounded study of the political economy attending the early China trade, the book explains how this commercial exchange intersected with politics, diplomacy, and society by affecting Americans’ perceptions of themselves, their government policies and institutions, and their nation’s...