The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics PDF

Rating: (11 reviews) Author: Richard Davenport-Hines ISBN : 9780393051896 New from Format: PDF

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From Publishers Weekly

Davenport-Hines offers a sharply opinionated history of drugs structured around three major premises: Human beings use drugs; for many that choice will be debilitating, sometimes fatal; and government prohibition of drugs, as opposed to regulation, is counterproductive and doomed to vainglorious failure. Davenport-Hines, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of a well-received work on W.H. Auden, builds his case with a body of evidence encyclopedic in scope and varied in perspective. He explores the effects of drugs on families and private lives, for example, by sampling diaries of ordinary citizens, the writings of literary figures as diverse as Balzac and Ken Kesey, the theories of notorious cult-leader Timothy Leary, and the reports of a host of journalists. He is equally focused on exposing the high public costs that, he argues, have resulted from governments' treatment of drugs (both in American and elsewhere) as a criminal rather than medical problem a choice that, the author says, is a product of political demagoguery rather than honest conviction. To give credence to his charges, he quotes the inflammatory words of presidents, drug czars, and moralist such as William Bennett. U.S. policymakers exported this punitive approach to Europe and Latin America, which he deems a form of cultural imperialism. Davenport-Hines also finds hypocrisy in government support for pharmaceutical companies, whose advertising and marketing contribute to the cultural acceptance of drugs. He takes care to provide readers with useful information about the effects of both legal and illegal drugs, and to carefully discriminate among the relative dangers of different classes of drugs. The effort adds credibility to his strong writing, and his well-documented positions will be difficult to dismiss.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Prominent British historian/journalist Davenport-Hines here offers a thorough and exhaustive history of addictive drugs and their abuse, spanning the globe and covering all eras for which there exists documented evidence of such activity, primarily from the 18th century forward. The author's approach is that of a historian at work, carefully detailing all known verifiable references to the insidious development of, trade in, and use/abuse of narcotics and other addictive substances. In addition to a thorough discourse on the manufacture and abuse of derivative drugs such as cocaine and heroin, Davenport-Hines also goes into great detail about naturally occurring herbs and weeds that have been abused over the centuries. He pays considerable attention to attempts by governments and world bodies to come to grips with the social, economic, and political ramifications of the drug trade and its side effects, such as organized crime, loss of government revenue, decreased productivity, and strains on healthcare infrastructures. The reluctance or inability of several powerful Western nations to suppress the popular appetite for drugs (only recently considered inappropriate) is cited as perhaps the greatest impediment to reform. Society's attempts over the years to treat and rehabilitate the victims of drug abuse are also documented. This comprehensive study is replete with references to primary and secondary sources. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Philip Y. Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Law Lib., First Judicial District, New York
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First edition (September 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393051897
• ISBN-13: 978-0393051896
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics PDF

In the midst of the War on Terror, we can only hope that it is going to be more winnable than the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has been going on by name (and being lost), only for a few decades, but this represents merely a parochial view of the problem of drugs and societies. It might be better to take the long view, and this is what Richard Davenport-Hines has done in _The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics_ (W. W. Norton), a weighty volume that demonstrates that such wars have never been won in free societies, and have been waged at larger harm to their societies than the drugs themselves. A telling theme throughout Davenport-Hines's book is that just about anyone has wished for some sort of chemical aid towards taking the edge off life, towards making pleasure a little easier to get, and most people do indeed go for such chemistry of pleasure in some form. His contention that "absolute sobriety is not a natural or primary human state" is surprising and is inarguable, given the huge range of legal and illegal and temporarily legal drugs that humans have come up with. This will conflict with those who favor prohibition, and particularly with Americans whose brand of puritanism has always distrusted hedonism.

This 498 page compendium of stories that go back thousands of years (to Sumer), detail in extraordinary (sometimes stifling) detail, mankinds continuous love hate relationship with intoxication. Be it with narcotics, hypnotics, stimulants, inebriants, or hallucinogens, mankind, for good or ill, loves to get f***'ed up.

Hate that fact, or appreciate it; regardless, the global illicit market for narcotics is nearly half a trillion dollars and growing. Growing despite centuries of government regulation, and, more recently, decades of intense global conflict.

Richard Davenport-Hines makes a powerful argument against the war on drugs, but he doesn't do it like so many authors of that thought genre, who, between tokes, rant and rave about the plight of users, or the unfair religious influence on "modern" policy (no dig on them intended, that was my best attempt at humor now that all my malt balls are gone and it's 3am)... Instead, the author makes a factual case, drawing in statistics that demonstrate clearly how ineffective public money is spent combating drug use. The stats used aren't homogeneous to the US, many extensive statistics are used from our more experimental neighbors across the Atlantic.

Like many, I believe this book could have been condensed considerably without losing its argumentative efficacy. However, there were more than enough compelling stats and human stories to keep me engaged. Among them, stories of the founding of Coca Cola, or the first western experimentors with Cannibus, or the lengths some have gone to stay intoxicated...fascinating stuff.

If you have a particular interest in understanding the relationship between man, drugs, government, and the societal impacts of interrelationship between them, then run and get this book.