Flowers in the Blood: The Story of Opium

(Paperback)

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The ultimate book on the incredible, and complex history of opium throughout the world.
Flowers in the Blood lifts the veil of mystery that has surrounded opium down through the ages. Inside, discover:
Why a three-thousand-year-old statue of a Greek goddess was crowned with poppies
The formulas for Hippocratess ancient opium remedies
Why the Islamic councils of the wise vilified hashish but venerated opium
What really provoked the Opium Wars in China
Why John Jacob Astor quit the opium trade
The unique role played by Chinese opium in the birth of the American labor movement
Opium has played a dramatic and varied role in human history, inspiring religious veneration, scientific exploration, the bitterest rancor, and the most fanciful ecstasy. Now, authors Jeff Goldberg and Dean Latimer have provided a complete, insightful history of opium.
Along the way, the authors provide details of the addictions of S. T. Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey, and other literary opium-eaters of the nineteenth century, as well as chronicling the progress of antidrug laws and the ongoing search for an addiction cure.
Originally published in 1981, this edition of Flowers in the Blood has been updated with a new preface by Goldberg. At times disconcertingraising serious questions about attitudes and approaches toward powerful drugs and their controlFlowers in the Blood

is an essential addition to the literature of opium, and a wide-awake look at the stuff that dreams (and nightmares) are made of.
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Reviews

This book covers the subject of opium from the earliest historical references to the present time Flowers in the Blood provides a fascinating documentation for a sane approach to opium and opiates.
William S. Burroughs

Not a pro-drug sermon, but a thoroughgoing and at times very funny debing of anti-drug paranoia An irreverent, exuberant, and sometimes eminently sensible affair.
Kirkus Reviews

This book is the best this critic has ever read on the full history of the drug.
Whittier, CA News

Dean Latimer and Jeff Goldberg have produces a well-written book setting forth the history of opium use, in which they do not disguise their hostility to the scapegoating of drugs and drug users.
Thomas Szasz, Inquiry
This book covers the subject of opium from the earliest historical references to the present time Flowers in the Blood provides a fascinating documentation for a sane approach to opium and opiates.
William S. Burroughs

Not a pro-drug sermon, but a thoroughgoing and at times very funny debing of anti-drug paranoia An irreverent, exuberant, and sometimes eminently sensible affair.
Kirkus Reviews

This book is the best this critic has ever read on the full history of the drug.
Whittier, CA News

Dean Latimer and Jeff Goldberg have produces a well-written book setting forth the history of opium use, in which they do not disguise their hostility to the scapegoating of drugs and drug users.
Thomas Szasz, Inquiry

Author Bio

Jeff Goldberg is a freelance writer best known as an investigator of psychoactive drugs and how they work in the brain. Born in Philadelphia, Goldberg's articles on science and medicine have appeared in Life, Discover, Omni, and other magazines internationally.

Dean Latimer is the former executive of High Life magazine. Born in Canton, New York, Latimer helped to originate the East Village Other as well as the National Lampoon. His articles have also appeared in Oui and Penthouse, amongst others.

William Burroughs was an American writer and artist, and one of the most recognized figures of the beat generation. He is probably most well-known for his novel Naked Lunch, a controversial work that was subject to one of the most recent obscenity trials for a book in the United States.