Smoke and Ashes
Opium's Hidden Histories
by Amitav Ghosh
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Pub Date Feb 13 2024 | Archive Date Mar 13 2024
Description
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Foreign Policy, Literary Hub, and The Millions
Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family―the climax of a yearslong project.
When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to learn how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote about 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 were swept up in the story.
Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir, and an essay in 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 to redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the empire’s financial survival. Following the profits further, Ghosh finds opium central to 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 history, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in Smoke and Ashes Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant has had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“A scintillating and kaleidoscopic vision of opium’s role in the past several centuries of global history . . . Exquisitely written and packed with astonishing insight, this is a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Amitav] Ghosh's literary prowess supercharges this eye-opening excavation of the full extent of the opium-industrial complex." —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374602925 |
| PRICE | $32.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 416 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Geoffrey S, Librarian
Amitav Ghosh’s “Smoke and Ashes” is the kind of eye-opening nonfiction read that makes one feel like their perception of the world has been permanently altered by the time they reach the final pages. Although I’ve been well aware of the opium trade in China thanks to many a historical read, that I’ve read on the topic, plus a sizable amount of historical fiction work like Ghosh’s fantastic “Ibis” trilogy, only now do I feel like I have any real sense of the scope of its impact, whose influences continue to be felt to this very day all around the world, and that’s literally no exaggeration. In thorough detail, Ghosh reveals still-reverberating effects that stretch from India all the way to my own native New England, where one can’t throw a rock without hitting some institution or at least a street sign named for some powerful mercantile family whose fantastic fortunes originated in the opium trade.
Not content with systematically tying all of those threads from past to and present together through the abundant backing of quality historical and modern day sources, Ghosh goes on to reveal the impact that the poppy and the modern-day opiate market continues to have on the present. Although he gives some mention to the illegal markets, his attention is overwhelmingly focused on players in the licit market who continue the tradition of using opioids to create absurd profits while denying their own involvement in wrecking obvious and well-documented havoc upon the public good. To say the least, the similarities he sees between the British East India Company and the Sackler family is not at all insignificant, not to mention ample fodder for contemplation.
The only aspect of this book that concerns me a little is the manner in which Ghosh refers to specific characters in his own aforementioned “Ibis” series. However, the trilogy is not a prerequisite by any major means, and the author always makes sure to provide context. This is a mere quibble at most, however. And honestly on second thought, my largest problem with the book was the disappointment I felt when I finished it after several days being fully absorbed and happily devouring all the new information and perspective that it had to impart. To say the least, this is a very hearty recommendation from me. It’s the kind of book that feels like an amazing college course that’s packed within a few hundred pages delivered in a writing style that manages a terrific balance between educational, accessible, and quite sharp with its commentary. For those fans of excellent non-fiction reads Ghosh’s latest is definitely not a book that they’ll want to miss.
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