It takes some daring to choose opium as your historical protagonist. The milky sap of the poppy flower has taken so many forms across so many centuries that its allure feels like a trap, a chasing of ...

After the mid-18th century, when the British East India Co. was importing tea from China, few could have guessed that the industry would be revolutionized by a different plant: the opium poppy. Over ...

The problem began with a flower, a delicate blossom with a slender stalk. It was a fragile-looking plant, with petals as fine as tissue paper, yet it proved to be a formidable opponent. As the ...

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – Opium nearly smoked out China, made Britain acquire tainted wealth, laid the foundation of the fortunes of many a notorious trading house, and made several early 19th-century ...

New York; March 8, 2024 — Last week, award-winning author Amitav Ghosh sat down with Princeton professor and former BBC journalist Razia Iqbal for a conversation about his latest book, Smoke and Ashes ...

AT the Eighteenth Session of the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Opium, held in May 1934, the American representative, Mr. Stuart J. Fuller, drew attention to the dangerous situation which has ...

Bestseller Ghosh (The Great Derangement) offers up a scintillating and kaleidoscopic vision of opium’s role in the past several centuries of global history. Centered mainly on events leading to the ...