Smoke and Ashes
Opium's Hidden Histories
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Smoke and Ashes
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Narrated by:
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Ranjit Madgavkar
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By:
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Amitav Ghosh
About this listen
'An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world' TLS
'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday Telegraph
'A history of the opium poppy, which probes how the drug trade has shaped free-market capitalism and globalisation. The plant may look innocuous, but its story is one of profits and power' Economist, Book of the Year
When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story.
Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions (from the Astors and Coolidges to the Ivy League), and of contemporary globalism itself.
Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Amitav Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.©2024 Amitav Ghosh (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Eliza9DW
- 30-03-24
an amazing, shocking insight into history
this remarkable book underpins Amitav Ghosh's breathtaking trilogy about the 19C opium wars. Opium has not gone away- 'empire of pain' and many other research-based histories show that with painful clarity. Ghosh connects the opium story to fossil fuels and climate change in a frighteningly prescient way. Read alongside other contemporary histories of colonialism and our contemporary world eg Olusoga 'the World's War' and many more. Highly recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- R. Abraham Fisher
- 08-04-24
Colonial will and profit
Very dense, perhaps too detailed , but important. Political will is lacking to overcome making profit at the expense of people’s lives.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- veyza
- 04-03-24
Fascinating and profound
After reading this fascinating book, I have recalibrated my (previously sketchy) understanding of Chinese and Indian colonial history. The discussion of the nature of addiction and the historical 'rhymes' drawn with the US opioid crisis and the global climate crisis are also very thought provoking. Highly recommended.
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