Smoke and Ashes

Opium's Hidden Histories

De: Amitav Ghosh

Narrado por: Ranjit Madgavkar

Duración: 12 h y 34 m

Resumen del Editor

Ghosh unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and in his own family—the climax of a years long 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.

©2024 Amitav Ghosh (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Interesting Research, Terrible Reading

There is no question the author knows his subject and although at times and specially in the beginning the book is dull, overall is a very interesting story of early global commerce. The variations in volume and tone of voice of the author makes this book very hard to listen to. I tried putting the volume all the way up and even then when he emphasises a word instead of projecting his voice he whispers. If you can read this book in other formats I highly recommend that you do.

Poor performance

Publishers really need to pay closer attention to (and perhaps higher fees for) performance. This is another fine book ruined by poor voice acting... over-acting, in many places.