Flowers in the Blood

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 Hippocrates’s 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 disconcerting—raising serious questions about attitudes and approaches toward powerful drugs and their control—Flowers 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.