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Lecture

Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
The First Opium War of 1840

Tuesday 17.03.2026

How to watch

This lecture starts on 17 March at 5:00pm (UK).

Summary

In this lecture we discuss the First Opium War—spurred by a significant dispute between Britain and China concerning the illicit trade and sale of opium—and then investigate the major outcomes that followed its conclusion.

Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

An image of Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).