Smoke and Ashes
Opium's Hidden Histories
by Amitav Ghosh
Narrated by Ranjit Mdgavkar
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Feb 13 2024 | Archive Date Feb 16 2024
RB Media | Recorded Books
Talking about this book? Use #SmokeandAshes #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Amitav 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 ten years ago, 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. 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 repercussions of colonialism, Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
Advance Praise
- Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Foreign Policy, Literary Hub, and The Millions
“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
Available Editions
EDITION | Audiobook, Unabridged |
ISBN | 9798891781979 |
PRICE | $29.99 (USD) |
DURATION | 12 Hours, 35 Minutes |
Available on NetGalley
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Jane Yolen; Harry Turtledove; Premee Mohamed; Lisa Morton
Mystery & Thrillers, Sci Fi & Fantasy
Georgina Ferry, Katalin Kariko, Mary Lou Jepsen, Sheri Graner Ray, Amalia Ballarino, Anna Oliveira, Anaïs Engelmann and Meghan Hale, Anda Waluyo Sapardan, Anna Lukasson-Herzig, Brenda Romero, Clarice Phelps, Claudia Brind -Woody, Coty Craven, Emily Holmes, Erica Kang, Gretchen Andrew, Ida Tin, Kasia Gora, Maria Carolina Fujihara, Marita Cheng, Mary Agbesanwa, Morenike Fajemisin, Rumman Chowdhury, Stephanie Willerth, Tan Le, Yewande Akinola
Biographies & Memoirs, Computers & Technology, Science
Edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell
Horror, Teens & YA
Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales & Jeanette González Seneviratne
Children's Nonfiction, Christian, Religion & Spirituality