Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium
September 9, 2019 - Comment
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A library in one volume. There is a vast amount of information, not merely about opium but about trading various commodities across the globe (tea, coffee …) political issues; deplorable European commercial involvement in the opium trade; The complicated Chinese problem (initially used for the right reasons) ; what became, and still is, a major concern for the USA. (for all the wrong reasons; Afghanistan, Corsica Mafia, Portugal, and of course the history of opium use and abuse in the UK. A limited reference to the…
A confused mess I’m a bit boggled by the number of highly laudatory reviews this book has picked up both here and in the world of dead tree journalism. Contrary to some claims, Inglis is no literary stylist; her prose is clunky and at times obscure. She is also given to rather snide comments about long dead individuals guilty of holding views which would not pass muster at liberal London dinner parties. The sections dealing with very recent history read like cut and pastes from journalistic sources. It’s…
Very accessible social history. Wide ranging gallup through the history of one of the most misunderstood and over mythologised plants in existence.I wish it had more detail on the relation of heroin use to music, particularly in the late 1940s and early 50s jazz scene, (and a little less about Vietnam which is so well documented elsewhere) but, that small gripe aside, it’s a really accessible read and gave me some excitingly fresh insights into the connections between the drug and mainstream culture. I especially…