The Pursuit of Oblivion
A Global History of Narcotics
New York : Norton, [2002]
Format: Book
Edition: First American edition.
Description: 576 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Melding social, political, and cultural history, the auhor illustrates that intoxication is neither unnatural nor deviant, and describes how for thousands of years human beings have taken substances to change their physical or emotionalemotuional state. He argues that drug use is a necessary part of human experience, recounting how many drugs that are controlled or prohibited nowadays were freely available until the early twentieth century.
Contents:
1. Early history -- 2. Opium during the enlightenment -- 3. The patent age of new inventions -- 4. Nerves, needles and Victorian doctors -- 5. Chemistry -- 6. Degeneration -- 7. The dawn of prohibition -- 8. Law-breaking -- 9. Trafficking -- 10. The age of anxiety -- 11. The first drugs czar -- 12. British drug scenes -- 13. Presidential drugs wars -- 14. So passé.
Subjects:
Drug abuse -- History.
Narcotics -- History.
Drugs of abuse -- History.
Drug traffic -- History.
Drug control -- History.
Drug abuse -- History.
Narcotics -- History.
Drugs of abuse -- History.
Drug traffic -- History.
Drug control -- History.
ISBN:
0393051897
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
SOCIAL SCI Dav | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | In |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 499-547) and index.