Bibliograph

Smoke and ashes, opium's hidden histories, Amitav Ghosh

Type

Label

Smoke and ashes, opium's hidden histories, Amitav Ghosh

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-391)

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

platesillustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Smoke and ashes

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1401670887

Responsibility statement

Amitav Ghosh

Sub title

opium's hidden histories

Summary

"Amitav Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family-the climax of a yearslong project"--, Provided by publisherWhen 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

Table Of Contents

Here be dragons -- Seeds -- "An actors in its own right" -- Frenemies -- The Opium Department -- Big brother -- Visions -- Family story -- Malwa -- East and West -- Diasporas -- Boston Brahmins -- American stories -- Guangzhou -- The sea-calming tower -- Pillar of empire -- Parallels -- Portents

Target audience

adult

resource.variantTitle

Opium's hidden histories

Classification