000			01680 a2200241 4500
001			11486
003			IN-BhIIT
005			20260527200643.0
008			260527b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9789362136220 (hbk.)
040			_aIN-BhIIT
041			_aeng
082			_a915.4 _bGHO
100			_aGhosh, Amitav _eAuthor _97829
245			_aSmoke and ashes : _ba writer’s journey through opium’s hidden histories / _cAmitav Ghosh
260			_aHaryana : _bFourth Estate India, _c2024.
300			_avii, 397 p. : _bill. ; _c20 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aSmoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural. Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as on the world at large. Engineered by the British Empire, which exported opium from India to sell in China, the trade and its revenues were essential to the Empire’s survival. Upon deeper exploration, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world’s biggest corporations, several of America’s most powerful families and institutions, and contemporary globalism itself. In India the long-term consequences were even more profound. Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, Smoke and Ashes reveals the pivotal role one small plant has played in the making of the world as we know it – a world that is now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
650			_aOpium trade _vHistory _927874
650			_aTravel writing _927423
942			_cGEN
999			_c15488 _d15488