{"product_id":"opium-slavery-civil-war-veterans-and-americas-first-opioid-crisis-9781469689531","title":"Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis","description":"\u003cp\u003eDuring the Civil War, the utility and widespread availability of opium and morphine made opiates essential to wartime medicine. After the war ended, thousands of ailing soldiers became addicted, or \"enslaved,\" as nineteenth-century Americans phrased it. Veterans, their families, and communities struggled to cope with addiction's health and social consequences. Medical and government authorities compounded veterans' suffering and imbued the epidemic with cultural meaning by branding addiction as a matter of moral weakness, unmanliness, or mental infirmity. Framing addiction as \"opium slavery\" limited the efficacy of care and left many veterans to suffer needlessly for decades after the war ended.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing from veterans' firsthand accounts as well as mental asylum and hospital records, government and medical reports, newspaper coverage of addiction, and advertisements, Jonathan S. Jones unearths the poorly understood stories of opiate-addicted Civil War veterans in unflinching detail, illuminating the war's traumatic legacies. In doing so, Jones provides critical historical context for the modern opioid crisis, which bears tragic resemblance to that of the post-Civil War era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jonathan S. Jones\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/28\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e Civil War America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 412\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.27lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.92d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781469689531","brand":"University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45046446751881,"sku":"9781469689531","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_cf1fdf56-0cbb-4ea2-b81f-33524548d5ec.jpg?v=1765399456","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/opium-slavery-civil-war-veterans-and-americas-first-opioid-crisis-9781469689531","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}