Opium: Reality's Dark Dream

About this book

Is opium a vile curse on society a blessed medicine from God or possibly both? This fresh history offers surprising new insights. Opium and its derivatives morphine and heroin have destroyed corrupted and killed individuals families communities and even whole nations. And yet for most of its long history opium has also been humanitys most effective means of alleviating physical and mental pain. This extraordinary book encompasses the entire history of the worlds most fascinating drug from the first evidence of poppy cultivation by stone-age man to the present-day opium trade in Afghanistan. Dr. Thomas Dormandy tells the story with verve and insight uncovering the strange power of opiates to motivate major conflicts yet also inspire great art and medical breakthroughs to trigger the rise of global criminal networks yet also revolutionize attitudes toward well-being. Opium: Realitys Dark Dream traverses the globe and the centuries exploring opiums role in colonialism the Chinese Opium Wars laudanum-inspired sublime Romantic poetry American "Yellow Peril" fears the rise of the Mafia and the black market 1960s counterculture and more. Dr. Dormandy also recounts exotic or sad stories of individual addiction. Throughout the book the author emphasizes opiums complex valuable relationship with developments in medicine health and disease highlighting the perplexing dual nature of the drug as both the cause and relief of great suffering in widely diverse civilizations.