{"product_id":"book-i23z","title":"Smoke and Ashes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen Amitav Ghosh began the research for his  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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: start\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSmoke and Ashes\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: start\"\u003eFollowing 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: start\"\u003eMoving deftly between horticultural history, the mythologies of capitalism, and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, in \u003cem\u003eSmoke and Ashes\u003c\/em\u003e Ghosh reveals the role that one small plant has had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Recorded Books, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49351293993264,"sku":"BDi23z","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49351294026032,"sku":"ZEi23z","price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49351294124336,"sku":"ZMi23z","price":45.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/542176-i23z-Square.jpg?v=1734307856","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-i23z","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}