Verve Afternoon Book Club

Kings of Shanghai by Jonathan Kaufman

The Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars, surviving Japanese occupation, courting Chiang Kai-shek, and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country’s deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps.