The Pursuit of Oblivion - Hardcover

Richard Davenport-Hines

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297643754 ISBN 13: 9780297643753

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Davenport-Hines is a past winner of the Wolfson Prize for History and contributes regularly to the TLS, Sunday Times, Independent and Nature.

Review

“Pragmatic and persuasive, full of fascinating lore and intelligent interpretation... overwhelming evidence and penetrating analysis.”
- Boston Globe

“Factually detailed and rich in anecdote.”
- Boston Phoenix

“A good read: lively, anecdotal, and written with the reader in mind.”
- D.M. Fahey, Choice

“A well-drawn, comprehensive account of a troubling subject.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“The best general account of the subject...thoroughly researched and expertly written.”
- Roy Porter, Literary Review

“Starred Review. A sharply opinionated history of drugs...encyclopedic in scope and varied in perspective...difficult to dismiss.”
- Publishers Weekly

“An impressively researched and exhaustive volume...[that] should be considered definitive.”
- San Diego Union Tribune

“The most important study on this subject in years, perhaps ever.”
- Phillip Knightley, Sunday Times [London]

“His book is a technical triumph: well researched, well-written, well presented. . . . Moreover, it is convincing.”
- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The Independent

“Highly absorbing...an extremely impressive work.”
- Christine Keneally, The New York Times

“America has exported bad drug policy since the Civil War, the book shows.”
- The Week

“Accomplished with authority and flair.”
- Virginia Quarterly Review

“A stern and sustained history...first-rate scholarship...a powerful indictment of mostly failed policy.”
- Washington Post

“An amazing, knock-your-socks-off book, argued with depth and cunning....A stunning and vital book.”
- James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California

“[A] highly literate and readable account...an author who is thoroughly conversant with the international and intercontinental aspects of drug policy.”
- Philip Jenkins, author of Synthetic Panics

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0297643754
• ISBN 13: 9780297643753
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 466