As your book describes, the United States did not recognize foreign copyrights until the late 1800s. As a result, U.S. publishers routinely published foreign works without permission or compensation for the non U.S. authors.
Today, the U.S. is aggressively pushing the Chinese government to crack down on its citizens who routinely pirate copies of U.S and European copyrighted movies and T.V. shows and sell them in China.
1) What does this say about the U.S. in the 1800s?
2) What does it say about the United States today?
3) Should the Chinese respect U.S. Copyright laws?