The Soap Opera Paradigm: Television Programming and Corporate Priorities

The title of this work of history is somewhat misleading. Meyer (history, Wright State U.) and Parssinen (history, U. of Tampa) concentrate primarily on the ebbs and flows of the opium trade that revolved around the political and economic power struggles in China during the first half of the 20th century. They essentially argue that drug trafficking succeeds where the traffickers are able to offer economic and political rewards to those who can ease their trafficking efforts. They profile the economic and political players surrounding the Chinese opium trade, including Chinese bureaucrats, European colonial powers and officers, warlords, spies, communists, anti-communists, and the drug traffickers themselves. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR