Opium’s Orphans: The 200-Year History of the War on Drugs

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Julian Elfer
Audiobook
13 hr 37 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

Upending all we know about the war on drugs, a history of the anti-narcotics movement's origins, evolution, and questionable effectiveness. Opium's Orphans is the first full history of drug prohibition and the "war on drugs." A no-holds-barred but balanced account, it shows that drug suppression was born of historical accident, not rational design. The war on drugs did not originate in Europe or the United States, and even less with President Nixon, but in China. Two Opium Wars followed by Western attempts to atone for them gave birth to an anti-narcotics order that has come to span the globe. But has the war on drugs succeeded? As opioid deaths and cartel violence run rampant, contestation becomes more vocal, and marijuana is slated for legalization, Opium's Orphans proposes that it is time to go back to the drawing board.

About the author

P. E. Caquet is an associate at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. His books include The Orient, the Liberal Movement, and the Eastern Crisis of 1839-41 and The Bell of Treason: The 1938 Munich Agreement in Czechoslovakia.

British-born Julian Elfer is an award-winning New York City-based actor and audiobook narrator. With over 100 titles to his credit, Julian brings a unique facility for characterization in fiction and an empathy for the personalities and events of the past.

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