Opium
A History

This book contains some interesting information and provides a broad and in-depth historical look at its topic. However, it’s a bit dull, rations its commas much too severely, has a tendency to overgeneralize, and its racial characterizations and blind spots are troubling. And by virtue of being pub......more

I found myself alternately crazy bored and truly engaged with Booth’s narrative. Essentially he tries to cover everything regarding this subject and does an admirable job – stuffing 4.54 kilograms of crap into a five pound bag, so to speak. Whereas I was less engrossed with the quite detailed techni......more

disappointing to a certain extent in its coverage: it begins ancient and then skips ahead to the opium wars, and then the modern period. i'd've preferred a commodity history through the medieval and early modern periods. for what it does cover, very readable, &c.......more