Milk of Paradise

December 15, 2018
A sweeping, panoramic history of opium and its deep roots in a vast array of societies and cultures.Inglis (Crow Mountain, 2016, etc.) opens with an observation from Thomas Jefferson, who noted, "merchants know no country," and ends with her own trenchant observation that the war on opium is endless. In between is a story that stretches across 5,000 years of history and touches nearly every part of human civilization. The author begins in the Fertile Crescent and then traces the cultivation of opium through the Bronze Age, the Greek and Roman civilizations ("Homeric references to the opium poppy are concerned with the need for emotional oblivion, but Greek scholars were also discovering its many medicinal properties"), the Renaissance, the disastrous Opium Wars, and the creation of Hong Kong. Inglis' history is not only wide, but deep due to her keen analysis of how entrenched opium is in modern culture in everything, from medicine to war to addiction to commerce. In the second half of the book, the author covers the isolation of morphine from opium and how new discoveries transformed the West. The third part of the book brings us quickly to today, focusing on the ready availability of professionally produced heroin, the explosion of big pharma, and the markets that have created "Generation Oxy." If there's one message to take from this history, it's that prohibition doesn't work. As Inglis notes, whether it's crimes committed by gangsters or strategies rolled out by massive pharmaceutical companies, this gift from the natural world to ease pain and suffering has become a commodity. She ends where she began: "Within all of these parameters, economies are built, both legal and illegal, petty and international. And whether they be sidewalk dope dealers or pharmaceutical giants, merchants know no country, just as the search for even a glimpse of paradise is constant and without end."A well-crafted history of civilization seen through the prism of one of the most profitable agricultural products in human history.

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With this latest work, Inglis (Georgian London) presents an intriguing world history of the appearance, spread, use, and abuse of the opium poppy and substances derived from it (morphine, heroine, opioids) from prehistory through today. There are more than 400 species of opium, but the opium poppy was never a wild plant; it has always cultivated. It first surfaced in the West but was lost to the East during the Dark Ages only to resurface again in Europe in the 18th century. Within a century, it was a scourge in both East and West. This account does not slight complicated historical connections: the East India Company's depredations in the Raj fold into production of the poppy farther east. The discussion of the rise of present-day poppy production in Afghanistan is a model of lucidity. Inglis explains how, in 2012, more than 250 million U.S. prescriptions for opioids were written, and that in Walker County, AL, alone, 335.1 were issued per 100 people. VERDICT This timely account will interest advocates and concerned citizens. Inglis's skillful command of style will please them all.--David Keymer, Cleveland

March 11, 2019
In this wide-ranging and at times vivid narrative, historian Inglis (Georgian London) charts several millennia of opium’s history, from the drug’s discovery up through the current opioid crisis. Writing in a formal but enjoyable style, Inglis recounts that the opium poppy first appears in the historical record about 5,000 years ago. It spread throughout the ancient world (Aristotle was a fan) as a sleep aid and analgesic before establishing itself in the West as a pain reliever specifically for surgery during the Renaissance. The book rushes through the drug’s early history, but gains coherence and argumentative strength when British history—the author’s area of expertise—intersects with opium’s. As Inglis explains, China’s famous trade routes would become critical for opium’s movement; Chinese authorities determined that it was harming the population, but the two Opium Wars didn’t stop Britain from illegally importing opium poppy and violently defending the drug trade through the 1800s. Westerners were self-medicating with opium-based home remedies starting in the 1700s; use only increased with the inventions of morphine and the hypodermic needle, followed by patented medicines in the 1900s, fomenting contemporary addictions that begin with prescription painkillers. The U.S.’s prohibition on opium in the 1920s led to the cartel-run black market that still supplies America’s nonprescription opiates. This examination is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of the opioid crisis. Illus.

December 15, 2018
There is no such thing as a wild opium poppy plant, explains historian and novelist Inglis (Crow Mountain, 2015) at the beginning of this global history of the poppy and its products?opiates. Humans created it through domestication some 5,000 years ago and have been affected by its power ever since. Inglis traces the complex relationship between humanity and its creation, including elements of medical and scientific history, social contexts, military history, economics, and politics, as she follows opium's spread from its origin somewhere in the Near East or western Mediterranean, across Eurasia, and eventually to the Americas. The narrative offers breadth rather than depth, but Inglis builds interest by emphasizing the places where intersections among historical strands yielded unexpected results and new trajectories in our relationship with opium; heroin, for example, was originally marketed as relief for tuberculosis symptoms, while the medical crisis of WWI encouraged Mexican opium production. She concludes by considering today's opiate addition crisis and its historical context. A compelling story and a strong introduction to an important topic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)