History 180A
“The Global Opium Trade, 1755-Present”
Syllabus
Instructor: H. P. James
Email: [email protected]
Voice: 617.797.8024
Office hours: Thursdays, 11AM – 12:30 PM (and by appointment)
Course Description
This course will investigate the history of the global opium trade from early times to the
present. The course will begin with a historical overview of the origin and medicinal
development of opium in South Asia. Detailed investigation will begin with the 18th
century Chinese invention of intoxicating, smokable opium for recreational use. It will
then proceed to the establishment of the East India Company’s opium monopoly in
Gangetic India, which raised production and distribution to an industrial scale. Coverage
will include the so-called “Malwa” trade in West India, where the business remained in
private hands. The course will emphasize the British government’s lucrative participation
in the 19th century opium trade, both legal and illegal, as well as the corrosive effects of
that trade among consuming societies in China and Southeast Asia. Beginning with the
20th century, our focus will shift to the history of drug regulation, spearheaded by
Theodore Roosevelt and the American Progressive movement. As the opium trade
became illegal, it passed out of the hands of “legitimate” merchant companies and into
the control of criminal gangs and corrupt politicians. We will investigate, for example,
the political collusion between China’s Guomindang Party and Shanghai’s “Green Gang”
drug syndicate, as well as the active participation of Japan’s Kwantung Army in the
opiates trade both in China and the puppet state of Manchukuo. Postwar coverage will
compare a variety of approaches to international drug regulation, from the successful
opium eradication efforts in the People’s Republic of China to America’s contemporary
War on Drugs.
Learning Objectives
Students taking this course will become familiar with the history of the global opium
trade from the mid 18th century to the present. They will learn about the phases in the
history of the trade, how its political economy evolved over time, and the social impact of
the global trade in opiates on the cultures that produce, trade, and consume them.
Students will learn how to analyze primary documents and to critique secondary texts,
and will develop the investigatory and analytical skills necessary for the production of a
major research paper.
Grading
Student evaluations will be based on in-class examinations, class participation, as well as
the production of a major research paper. The course grade will be computed according
to the following formula:
Class Participation – 15%
Midterm Examination – 20%
Research Paper – 40%
Final Examination – 25%
Course Books
Required:
Dikotter, Frank, Lars Laamann, Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A History
of Drugs in China. London: Hurst & Company, 2004.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
Recommended:
McCoy, Alfred W., The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global
Drug Trade. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003.
All additional assigned readings, as well as the syllabus, handouts, and other classroom
resources will be available online on LATTE.
Research Paper
The final research paper will be 10-12 pages in length. Paper topics should be chosen in
consultation with the instructor. Please be practical about choosing your paper topics.
You should certainly choose a topic that interest you. However, you should work
carefully to frame the scope of your project narrowly enough that you can investigate the
topics in depth, and then express the results in a term paper of between 10 and 12 pages
in length. Your research should be based on no fewer than ten (10) published sources.
These can be in the form of primary source material or secondary sources published by
reputable publishers, (e.g. university presses). Online secondary source material should
be limited to peer-reviewed academic journals. All bibliographic information, including
citations, should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 2
Electronics Policy
There will be no use of mobile telephones or laptop computers during class
without directly expressed, individual permission granted by the instructor.
Disabilities
Any student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University who wishes to
have a reasonable accommodation made in this class should contact me as soon as
possible.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to be familiar with and to follow the university’s policies on
academic integrity. For more information, see Section 4, Rights and Responsibilities, at
http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/rr/RR11.12.pdf. Faculty may refer any
suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to the university administration. Instances of
academic dishonesty may result in sanctions including, but not limited to, failing grades
being issued, withdrawal from educational programs, and other consequences.
Class Schedule
Week 1
Tuesday, January 13: Introduction
Thursday, January 15: The Nature and History of Opium
Lee, Peter, Opium Culture: The Art and Ritual of Chinese Tradition.
Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2006, pages 45-111.
Week 2
Tuesday, January 20: Opium Production in Early Times
Thursday, January 22: The East India Company in India and Elsewhere
Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A
Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999, pages 1-26.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages XI-35.
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 3
Week 3
Tuesday, January 27: Plantation Agriculture and the Commoditization of Opium
Thursday, January 29: The East India Company Monopoly
Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A
Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999, pages 32-57.
Richards, John F., “Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium in the
Nineteenth Century,” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 15, No.1 (1981), pages
59-82.
Markovits, Claude, “The Political Economy of Opium Smuggling in
Early Nineteenth Century India: Leakage or Resistance?” Modern Asian
Studies, Volume 43, Issue 1, January 2009, pages 89-111.
Week 4
Tuesday, February 3: The Illegal Opium Trade with China
Thursday, February 5: The First Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion
Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A
Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999, pages 58-108.
Spence, Jonathan, The Search for Modern China. New York: W. W.
Norton & Co, 3rd Edition, 2012, pages 137-196.
Week 5
Tuesday, February 10: The Second Opium War and the Legalization of Opium
Thursday, February 12: The Physical Infrastructue of the Opium Trade
Dikotter, Frank, Lars Laamann, Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A History
of Drugs in China. London: Hurst & Company, 2004, pages 46-73.
Wong, J. Y., Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War
(1856-1860) in China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1998, pages 3-41; 457-489.
Winter Break – February 16 – 20
Week 6
Tuesday, February 24: Minority Entrepreneurship in the Asian Opium Trade
Thursday, February 26: MIDTERM EXAM
Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A
Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999, pages 109-136.
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 4
Week 7
Tuesday, March 3: Opium and the U.S. “China Trade”
Thursday, March 5: Opium Culture in China: Luxury Consumption
Alexander Des Forges, “Opium/Leisure/Shanghai: Urban Economies of
Consumption” in Brook, Timothy, and Ken Tedashi Wakabayashi (eds.),
Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839-1952. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2000, pages 167-185.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages 37-65.
Dikotter, Frank, Lars Laamann, Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: a History of
Drugs in China. London: Hurst & Company, 2004, pages 46-73.
Week 8
Tuesday, March 10: Mass Consumption and the Chinese Diaspora
RESEARCH PAPER PROPOSALS DUE
Thursday, March12: Medicalization, Prohibition, and Criminalization
Buxton, Julia, “The Historical Foundations of the Narcotic Drug Control
Regime,” in Keefer, Philip and Norman Loayza, Innocent Bystanders:
Developing Countries and the War on Drugs. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010, pages 61-93.
Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A
Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950. London and New York:
Routledge, 1999, pages 137-173.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages 235-266.
Week 9
Tuesday, March 17: End of the Legal Trade in Smokable Opium
Thursday, March 19: The Kuomintang Party and Shanghai’s Opium Gangs
Jennings, John M., The Opium Empire: Japanese Imperialism and Drug
Trafficking in Asia, 1895-1945. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997, pages 62-76.
Dikotter, Frank, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A
History of Drugs in China, London: Hurst & Company, 2004, pages 146205.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages 67-88.
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 5
Week 10
Tuesday, March 24: Opium Money and the Shanghai Boom, 1919-1935
PAPER OUTLINES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES DUE
Thursday, March 26: Japan’s Role in the International Opiates/Opioids Trade
Jennings, John M., The Opium Empire: Japanese Imperialism and Drug
Trafficking in Asia, 1895-1945. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997, pages 1-59;
77-103.
Li Sha, Xuejiao Zhang, and Zhan Zhang, “Drug Flooding in Northeast
China During the Governing of the Japanese and the Puppet Government
of Manchuria” Asian Social Science, Volume 5, Number 4, 2009, pages
53-58.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages 89-233.
Week 11
Tuesday, March 31: Postwar Anti-Opium Campaigns in the PRC and Elsewhere
Thursday, April 2: U.S. Regulatory Regimes: from the Progressives through
Nixon
Courtwright, David T. Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the
Modern World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001, pages
152-186.
Dikotter, Frank, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A
History of Drugs in China. London: Hurst & Company, 2004, pages 206211.
Meyer, Kathryn and Terry Parssinen, Webs of Smoke: Smugglers,
Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade.
Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998, pages 235-289.
Zhou, Yongming, “Nationalism, Identity, and State Building: The
Antidrug Crusade in the People’s Republic of China,” in Brook, Timothy,
and Ken Tedashi Wakabayashi (eds.), Opium Regimes: China, Britain,
and Japan, 1839-1952. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000,
pages 380-403.
Passover Break – April 6 – 10
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 6
Week 12
Tuesday, April 14: Opioids as a Global Commodity in the Postwar World
Thursday, April 16: From Golden Triangle to the Afghan Trade
Strongly Recommended: McCoy, Alfred W., The Politics of Heroin: CIA
Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books,
2003. ALL.
Week 13
Tuesday, April 21: America’s “War on Drugs” and Its Fallout
FINAL PAPERS DUE
Thursday, April 23: Conclusion and Review
Film: The House I Live In
FINAL EXAM (tentative) – Wednesday, May 6, 6:00-9:00 PM
History 184A Spring 2015 Syllabus, Page 7