09-02-2025, 03:22 PM
Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh
The Opium Trade from the perspective of India around the time of the Opium Wars. The Opium Wars are touched on but the battles aren't really the focus, it's more of how the British used India to grow the opium and distribute it to China. There is also a lot of the richest families in the United States got their fortunes by doing the same thing only using Turkish Opium. Ever wonder why there are 31 cities named Canton in the US. Opium.
The book is really good and eye opening. It is basically all the research Ghosh did for his fictional trilogy about the Opium trade, one of the books in the trilogy won the booker prize. One of the things that was a bit off-putting was the constant references to that trilogy. Ghosh does show the relevance of the opium trade of yesterday still affects us today with his comparison to the Opiod epidemic and Purdue pharma. Purdue uses a lot of the same arguments the British used to justify their trade.
The Opium Trade from the perspective of India around the time of the Opium Wars. The Opium Wars are touched on but the battles aren't really the focus, it's more of how the British used India to grow the opium and distribute it to China. There is also a lot of the richest families in the United States got their fortunes by doing the same thing only using Turkish Opium. Ever wonder why there are 31 cities named Canton in the US. Opium.
The book is really good and eye opening. It is basically all the research Ghosh did for his fictional trilogy about the Opium trade, one of the books in the trilogy won the booker prize. One of the things that was a bit off-putting was the constant references to that trilogy. Ghosh does show the relevance of the opium trade of yesterday still affects us today with his comparison to the Opiod epidemic and Purdue pharma. Purdue uses a lot of the same arguments the British used to justify their trade.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm