Lucy Inglis
Books by Lucy Inglis
Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium
by Lucy Inglis
In Milk of Paradise British historian Lucy Inglis traces the history of opium from the poppy seeds found in excavations of Neolithic sites 8,000-10,000 years ago to the present day, with OxyContin wreaking havoc in the United States (on which more in Patrick Radden Keefe's more recent Empire of Pain). It’s a fascinating history, not only because of the extraordinarily long timescale covered, but also because of the range of history that comes into play. There is opium’s role in the history of medicine as an analgesic and the story of the doctors—Hippocrates, Avicenna—who prescribed it. There is its role in cultural history, with some Romantic poets using it for inspiration, and the ‘heroin chic’ era in the fashion industry. Finally, of course, there is the role it played geopolitically, particularly in the Opium Wars. The Chinese did not traditionally smoke opium, but thanks to the Dutch East India Company—keen to sell opium from poppies grown in Batavia—a lot of Chinese people got hooked.
Interviews where books by Lucy Inglis were recommended
-
1
Thomas Cromwell: A Life
by Diarmaid MacCulloch -
2
Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium
by Lucy Inglis -
3
Iran: A Modern History
by Abbas Amanat -
4
Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain
by Nadine Akkerman -
5
Power, Pleasure, and Profit: Insatiable Appetites from Machiavelli to Madison
by David Wootton
The Best History Books of 2018, recommended by Paul Lay
The Best History Books of 2018, recommended by Paul Lay
From female spies during the English Civil Wars to the enduring distinctiveness of Iran, there is much left to be understood about history globally. Editor of History Today Paul Lay recommends the best history books that hit the shelves in 2018.
