The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics
by Richard Davenport-Hines
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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, show more 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. show lessTags
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Because the book spans continents, millenniums and subjects, from the opium habit of Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the invention of hypodermic needles, the sheer volume of detail in ''The Pursuit of Oblivion'' makes it demanding to read. But it is an extremely impressive work, not just for its common-sense argumentation and encyclopedic breadth, but also because of Davenport-Hines's sharp eye for show more a good story. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics
- Original publication date
- 2001
- Epigraph
- History is the most dangerous concoction the chemistry of the mind has produced. Its properties are well known. It sets people dreaming, intoxicates them, engenders false memories, exaggerates their reflexes, keeps old wounds... (show all) open, torments their leisure, inspires them with megalomania or persecution complex, and makes nations bitter, proud, insufferable and vain.
History can justify anything you like. It teaches strictly nothing, for it contains and gives examples of everything.
-Paul Valery, Regards sur le Monde Actuel
Hidden worlds haunt our imagination. The underworld of criminals; the Underground; the demi-monde (occupied in part by the inhabitants of polite society, wearing as it were, their Hyde aspects).
The world of the g... (show all)ods; Shangri La; Middle Earth; the world through the Looking-Glass.
The Mafia; the Establishment; the System; the great conspiracy of the left; the great conspiracy of the right.
Of these five apparently normal, respectable citizens, one is ruthless murderer who disemboweled Sir Toby with the ornamental Javanese paper-knife! - At once they all five became deep, interesting in their very uninterestingness.
-Michael Frayn, Constructions
The need to go astray, to be destroyed is an extremely private, distant, passionate turbulent truth, and has nothing to do with what we call substance.
-Georges Bataille, Le Coupable - Dedication
- For AJH
- First words
- Mitsubishis, 007s, Doves, New Yorkers, California Sunrises, M&Ms, Dennis the Menances, Rhubarb and Custards, Snowballs, Blue Butterflies, McDonalds, Flatliners, Shamrocks, Swans, Swallows, Turbos, Phase Fours, Refreshers,... (show all) Love Hearts, Riddlers, Pink Elephants - these are some of the alluring brand names of Ecstasy available on the illegal British drug market at the start of the twenty-first century. (Prologue)
In the 1670s an English merchant seamen called Thomas Bowrey (1649?-1713) was plying his trade along the coast of Bengal together with other English sailors. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Depending on their choice, they will confront either a minor chronic pest or an unbeatable and destructive adversary.
- Blurbers
- Porter, Roy; Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe; Knightley, Phillip; Jenkins, Philip; Kincaid, James R.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 363.45 — Society, Government, and Culture Social problems and social services Public Safety - Police, Crime Investigation Illegal drugs
- LCC
- HV5801 .D25 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Drug habits. Drug abuse
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 215
- Popularity
- 151,335
- Rating
- (3.57)
- Languages
- English, Russian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 5
