William Speer THE OLDEST AND THE NEWEST EMPIRE CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 1870 Illustrated Chinese History Immigration Missionary San Francisco California Culture Opium War Mongol Dynasty Empire Manchu Ming

Title: The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States
Author: William Speer - Speer left for China in December, 1848. He spent about four years as a missionary in Canton and became fluent in Cantonese. In 1852, he married Elizabeth B. Ewing in Allegheny Co., Pa. and they settled in San Francisco. In 1853, he founded a mission that became the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, the oldest Asian-American Christian church in North America. Speer visited new Chinese immigrants and Chinese mine workers and set up a dispensary to provide care to the Chinese. He also was founder and publisher of The Oriental, a Chinese language newspaper. A strong advocate of establishing schools for Chinese immigrant children he supported using these schools to teach Christianity.

Speer became an early supporter of Chinese immigration and opposed laws for Chinese exclusion. He offered strong economic arguments in favor of immigration, but his main focus was evangelizing. He hoped that Chinese who converted to Christianity would return to China and spread the faith.

While in Philadelphia, Speer published two large volumes. The first, The Oldest and Newest Empire: China and the United States (1870), was a massive history of China and its culture. The second was The Great Revival of 1800 (c1872).
Publisher: Published by S. S. Scranton and Company
City: Hartford, Connecticut
Year: 1870
Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 681 pages, plus advertisements
Width: 6.25" Height: 9"
Book Details: Bound in brown blindstamped cloth with gilt spine title, this antique volume is enhanced with an illustrated frontispiece and numerous illustrations throughout the text, with explanations on the list of illustrations pages. This volume is a history of China and its culture. Some chapter headings include:

The Chinese People: Their Origin-Races in the Empire
Geography, Vegetable Productions, Animals
The Patriarchal Age in China
The Mongol Dynasty
The Last Native Dynasty-The Ming
The Manchu Dynasty-First Emperors
Tau-Kwang and the Opium War
American Relations with the Chinese Empire
Chinese Immigration
The Chinese Companies in California
The Glory of America
Condition / Notes: This antique volume displays some typical indications of age and wear, including shelfwear and rubbing. The front hinge is cracked and the spine is separated, with some loss. The text block remains sound. Text and illustrations are clear and crisp through mild age toning.

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