A review by piratequeen
Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship by Steven Ujifusa

4.0

This was a really good read. The writing was clear and pleasant, and the author did his research. I knew very little about the clippers, other than I thought they were pretty, so I learned a lot. It was interesting to learn just how much these ships contributed to the tea and opium trade, which devastated China and left it under the control of American and European business interests until the Japanese took over in the 1930s. I'm going to have to read more about that in the near future; I knew the opium trade was bad, but I had no idea just how much until this book came along. Eye opening.