High society : the central role of mind-altering drugs in history, science and culture / Mike Jay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jay, Mike, 1959 December 14-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychotropic drugs--History.

Psychotropic drugs.

Drugs of abuse--History.

Drugs of abuse.

Psychopharmacology.

Narcotics--History.

Narcotics.

History.

Physical Description:

192 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Rochester, Vt. : Park Street Press, [2010]

Summary:

"An illustrated cultural history of drug use from its roots in animal intoxication to its future in designer neurochemicals"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

A universal impulse. High societies. The evolution of drugs. Animal intoxication. Drugs and shamanism. Drugs and culture. The culture of kava. The culture of betel. Drug prohibitions. Drug subcultures. The cultures of ecstasy

From apothecary to laboratory. What is a drug? Drugs in antiquity. Renaissance herbals. Witches and flying ointments. The invention of laudanum. Linnaeus and the Enlightenment. The first synthetic drugs. Opium and the Romantics. The Club des Haschischins. Freud and cocaine. Addiction and drug control. Mescaline, LSD and beyond. Drugs of the future

The drugs trade. Drugs of the New World. The psychoactive revolution. Tobacco in China, tea in Europe. The opium wars. The anti-opium campaign. Temperance and prohibition. The 'War on drugs.' Epilogue: the decline of tobacco.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781594773938

1594773939

OCLC:

567181942