The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics 1500-2000 (Hardcover)

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• This item: The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics 1500-2000 by Richard Davenport-Hines

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Amazon.co.uk Review
"Intoxication is neither unnatural nor deviant,"quotes Hines, prizewinning writer and regular TLS contributor, at the start of his compendious chronicle, The Pursuit of Oblivion. This pretty much sums up his objective take on drug consumption although he is far less impartial on the policies surrounding the trade and legislation of the drugs industry. This fascinating book examines the history of changing Western social attitudes to drugs, their place in our culture and what they reflect of it. Hines uncovers the strange duality of our love/hate affair with each drug du jour, fuelled by the twin forces of puritanical morality and the desire to be freed from one's conscious self. This is aptly mirrored by the fact that most drugs originated as medicines. While the burgeoning British-controlled opium trade created addicts across China, physicians at home were lauding the narcotic for its healing properties. Even minds as great as Freud's were at one time convinced of the marvellous psychological curative powers of cocaine. But of course, it has also been in the interests of scientific inquiry to further the development and production of drugs because of what they can reveal about the human psyche. And from the age of enlightenment onwards, we have as a culture been obsessed by this desire to look inwards: for as Hines rightly points out, it would be illogical to explore the outside world without also exploring the inner one. The Pursuit of Oblivion is exhaustively thorough and rich in detail but its real beauty is the energy and incisiveness of its writing. Hines is clearly riveted by every aspect of his subject and uses it to paint a colourful and captivating picture of evolving human nature in all its messy, ambivalent complexity. --Rebecca Johnson

Product Description
Davenport-Hines' landmark book draws on a dazzlingly wide range of sources to show how narcotics such as opium, morphine, cannabis, heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, LSD and ecstasy came to have such an impact on Western society and how, in turn, that society has attempted to cope with the arrival of each. Although it should become the standard account of the subject, this book is no dry academic tome: Davenport-Hines is one of the great historical story tellers and The Pursuit of Oblivion, though serious in purpose, contains a dazzling array of strange, amusing and macabre stories. It reveals the intimate drug habits of Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Walter Scott, Dickens, Gladstone, Freud, George IV, Queen Victoria, Marilyn Monroe, W. H. Auden and Anthony Eden (to name just a few); the role of enterprises such as the East India Company and Glaxo in distributing drugs (especially opiates); the part played by war in expanding drug use; the origins of the different policies of Britain and the United States, Holland and Switzerland, Thailand and Indonesia; the routes by which narcotics are transported around the world (including a brilliant account of the murderous career of the Colombian cocaine warlord, Pablo Escobar); and the evolution of attitudes towards, and taboos about, illicit substances. Spanning centuries, continents and empires, wars and revolutions, immigrants and aristocrats, The Pursuit of Oblivion neither celebrates nor condemns the use of narcotics. It concludes with an assessment of why, despite increasingly harsh sanctions, illegal drug use continues to increase and considers where law-makers go from here.

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2 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   10 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars How fashions in drug use and control have changed since 1500, 19 Dec 2001 By  simsilver@cix.co.uk (Cinderford UK) - See all my reviews This is a scholarly work which describes changes in patterns of drug use since 1500. How different societies have thought about constitutes a drug and what role societies have in controlling these drugs is described for a range of different cultures. The above sounds dry but there are many fascinating facts. Did you know that one of George V's physicians recommended heroin tablets for a dry cough? And that nobody thought it odd,wrong or dangerous. The author does have his sympathies but he tries hard not to let them show in what is a fair account of the origins of today's drug problems. The differing view points between Europe and the USA and how american attitudes appear to have gained the ascendency are particularly interesting and relevant. I can recommend this book to all general readers. My only criticisms are that the paragraph spacing could have been shorter and there was no list of general reading accompanying the references. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   4 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A straightforward introduction to a complicated subject, 25 Sep 2003 By  alexander charles - See all my reviews Whilst almost every-one knows that the history of drugs did not begin in the sixties, it is nonetheless extraordinary how prevalent drug use has been across so many cultures and centuries. Despite its somewhat daunting size, the pace of the narrative never falters, and by the end one is left wishing that he had gone into some of the material in more detail. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 2 customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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