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"This book examines natural substances used by different cultures to alter the mind. Makes for interesting, thought provoking reading."
American Herb Association, Vol 16:4
This book examines natural substances used by different cultures to alter the mind. Makes for interesting, thought provoking reading.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Did you know that the romans had no word for a junky, but a dozen for alcoholics. Everything you ever wanted to confront your parents with, but never knew. It really makes you wonder how the world got to this state. Well written, entertaining and pure factual research. The only let down being that the full two volume version is not available in english and the native spanish is out if print. If you ever tried it, buy it! Cheers from Pet@
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Escohotado carefully pulls apart past and present orthodox thinking on drug use. What is really admirable in this piece is the way he avoids a simplistic or moralistic viewpoint. He labours to tell the story, covering all the angles. Amazingly, for such a short book, you get a broad overview of the subject but with much incisive detail. I especially enjoyed his coverage of the opium wars which he links brilliantly with the US government's attitude to drugs in the years after alcohol prohibition. There is a lot of detail on the persecution of drug users by the Catholic church from medieval times through to the conquest of the New World too.
All in all, a great little book which hints at the depth of Escohotado's "Historia de las Drogas". This was originally published in three volumes and is now available as one, huge tome in Spanish. I only wish my Spanish was up to reading it.
This brings me to the matter of the translation, which is atrocious. The translator, Kenneth A. Symington, does not seem to have the first idea of how to render the text into readable English. All too often, I could identify the original Spanish grammatical structure in the English text, as if he had simply translated word for word. It makes for a very heavy read. At times, I lost track of the subject of the sentence, as the translation rambled incoherently on. However, I have ignored the incompetent translation when giving the star rating...
I really hope that if the American publishers decide to produce any more of Escohotado's work, they'll find a different translator. It deserves better than this.
All in all, a great little book which hints at the depth of Escohotado's "Historia de las Drogas". This was originally published in three volumes and is now available as one, huge tome in Spanish. I only wish my Spanish was up to reading it.
This brings me to the matter of the translation, which is atrocious. The translator, Kenneth A. Symington, does not seem to have the first idea of how to render the text into readable English. All too often, I could identify the original Spanish grammatical structure in the English text, as if he had simply translated word for word. It makes for a very heavy read. At times, I lost track of the subject of the sentence, as the translation rambled incoherently on. However, I have ignored the incompetent translation when giving the star rating...
I really hope that if the American publishers decide to produce any more of Escohotado's work, they'll find a different translator. It deserves better than this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
A concise version of a lengthy classic
3 May 2000
Format:Paperback
This wonderful new volume is a very readable and informative condensation of and expansion on Escohotado own previous publication, the lengthy three-volume 'Historia General de las Drogas'. Here, in a text finely balanced with history and science, he traces humanity's affair with drugs and intoxicants beginning with the third millenium B.C., and leading up to the modern hi-tech psycheledics. He traces some of the most popular drugs like caffeine and hemp back to their surprisingly early origins. Taking into account the involvement of drugs in early religious festivities, he offers an analysis how they've made an easy move from there to a more secular, pleasure-seeking culture, accompanied by the parallel villification of drugs by religion, the institution that played a leading role in their introduction to society. This concise book will make readers aware of the extent of the spread of drugs through history, and of the hopelessness of all attempts to make them disappear from future history as well.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
No bibliography makes me a dull boy
25 May 2006
Format:Paperback
I've never begun a book review by quoting the very last sentences of the book, but well, I guess it's true that there's a first for everything:
"Drugs have always existed everywhere, and judging by the present times, tomorrow there will be more drugs than exist today, so that the options are not a world WITH or WITHOUT drugs. The alternatives are to teach people how to use them correctly, or to indiscriminately demonize them: to sow knowledge, or to sow ignorance."
These two sentences work perfectly for summarizing what A Brief History of Drugs is all about. The book, a short version of the massive three-volume Historia General de las Drogas (only available in Spanish, however), is well-written, sober, clever, fascinating, and most importantly honest description about how various drugs have always been a part of human nature, civilization, and development. Without arguing whether or not all or some drugs should be made legal or not, Escohotado shows what the real world looks like; and it's a description that a whole lot of people probably don't want to know about.
Yes, it's true that the word "drugs" to most people have a very negative ring to it, and obviously it would be both ignorant and retarded to deny that numerous lives have been utterly destroyed due to drugs. Still, one cannot deny - whether you happen to be pro or against drugs - that less than one hundred years ago substances such as cocaine, heroine, and marijuana could be bought perfectly legal in drugstores all over the world, and that the great majority of drug uses managed to live perfectly normal lives before their drug of choice was criminalized, which only made things a whole lot worse (except for politicians on the search for votes). The drug question is an extremely complex question, and can therefore obviously not be completely summarized in a short book review.
All books about drugs are likely to be labelled in a negative way before people have even bothered to read them, and it's especially unfortunate when it happens to such a well-written and informative book as A Brief History of Drugs. Because this is NOT a sloppy "legalize it" book about drugs. Definitely not.
Instead it's the story about the human being and her development, misunderstandings between Western materialism and Eastern nature religions, political corruption at its very worst, and perhaps most of all the human weakness in fearing the unknown and accepting false truths without any scepticism whatsoever. A Brief History of Drugs will not turn the reader into a strung-out heroin junkie, but what it will do is start a debate and influence the reader into making his or her own decision. And isn't that what a successful non-fiction book is supposed to do?
The only negative thing about the book is the lack of a complete bibliography, something Escohotado himself mentions in the preface. He suggests the reader to look up the large work that this book is based on, but what good does that do to all of us who don't speak Spanish?
"Drugs have always existed everywhere, and judging by the present times, tomorrow there will be more drugs than exist today, so that the options are not a world WITH or WITHOUT drugs. The alternatives are to teach people how to use them correctly, or to indiscriminately demonize them: to sow knowledge, or to sow ignorance."
These two sentences work perfectly for summarizing what A Brief History of Drugs is all about. The book, a short version of the massive three-volume Historia General de las Drogas (only available in Spanish, however), is well-written, sober, clever, fascinating, and most importantly honest description about how various drugs have always been a part of human nature, civilization, and development. Without arguing whether or not all or some drugs should be made legal or not, Escohotado shows what the real world looks like; and it's a description that a whole lot of people probably don't want to know about.
Yes, it's true that the word "drugs" to most people have a very negative ring to it, and obviously it would be both ignorant and retarded to deny that numerous lives have been utterly destroyed due to drugs. Still, one cannot deny - whether you happen to be pro or against drugs - that less than one hundred years ago substances such as cocaine, heroine, and marijuana could be bought perfectly legal in drugstores all over the world, and that the great majority of drug uses managed to live perfectly normal lives before their drug of choice was criminalized, which only made things a whole lot worse (except for politicians on the search for votes). The drug question is an extremely complex question, and can therefore obviously not be completely summarized in a short book review.
All books about drugs are likely to be labelled in a negative way before people have even bothered to read them, and it's especially unfortunate when it happens to such a well-written and informative book as A Brief History of Drugs. Because this is NOT a sloppy "legalize it" book about drugs. Definitely not.
Instead it's the story about the human being and her development, misunderstandings between Western materialism and Eastern nature religions, political corruption at its very worst, and perhaps most of all the human weakness in fearing the unknown and accepting false truths without any scepticism whatsoever. A Brief History of Drugs will not turn the reader into a strung-out heroin junkie, but what it will do is start a debate and influence the reader into making his or her own decision. And isn't that what a successful non-fiction book is supposed to do?
The only negative thing about the book is the lack of a complete bibliography, something Escohotado himself mentions in the preface. He suggests the reader to look up the large work that this book is based on, but what good does that do to all of us who don't speak Spanish?
Drug History
17 Feb 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very interesting read. It provides a nice history of abused substances over the course of time. For me, the middle section started to get a little dry, but once we got to semi-modern times (1700-1800's) it got really interesting. This book will challenge your thinking on the current way we regulate drugs. It is a great book.
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