by Amitav Ghosh
First published 2024
Amitav Ghosh set out to research his Ibis trilogy and stumbled upon a revelation that changed everything. The nineteenth-century world he had been writing about was shaped by opium, and his own family history was caught up in this vast trade network. Ghosh combines travel writing, memoir, and historical investigation to map how British-controlled Indian opium transformed global commerce. The British Empire used opium exports to China to solve massive trade deficits, generating revenues that kept the empire afloat. Ghosh follows the money trail from this trade to discover opium profits behind major American families like the Astors and Coolidges, Ivy League universities, and the foundations of modern capitalism. He moves between botanical studies, economic analysis, and personal discovery to show how one plant reshaped Britain, India, China, and the world. This book reveals the colonial roots of contemporary globalization.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, personal-discovery
Setting: Britain, China, India
Period: 19th-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux