High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know about Drugs and Society (P.S.) - Softcover

Hart Dr, Carl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062015893 ISBN 13: 9780062015891

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2014

Synopsis

High Price is the harrowing and inspiring memoir of neuroscientist Carl Hart, a man who grew up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and, determined to make a difference as an adult, tirelessly applies his scientific training to help save real lives.

Young Carl didn't see the value of school, studying just enough to keep him on the basketball team. Today, he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist--Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences--whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction.

In this provocative and eye-opening memoir, Dr. Carl Hart recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. Interweaving past and present, Hart goes beyond the hype as he examines the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. His findings shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and explain why current policies are failing.

About this title

Review:

"Moving and inspiring.... Hart's memoir... is deeply honest and often painful. And his account of the ways in which scientific evidence has been ignored in the war on drugs is as alarming as it is fascinating."--Boston Globe

"Hart's account of rising from the projects to the ivory tower is as poignant as his call to change the way society thinks about race, drugs and poverty."--Scientific American

"A hard-hitting attack on current drug policy by...a neuroscientist who grew up on the streets of one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods...An eye-opening, absorbing, complex story of scientific achievement in the face of overwhelming odds."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Perhaps nowhere has a voice been more resonant in a single place than in Dr. Carl Hart's profoundly impacting new memoir, High Price."--Ebony.com

"Hart's autobiography weaves personal memoir, Drug Science 101, and enlightened discussions of American racial politics into one engaging narrative."--Gabriel Grand, PolicyMic.com

"It's a fascinating combination of memoir and social science: wrenching scenes of deprivation and violence accompanied by calm analysis of historical data and laboratory results."--John Tierney, New York Times

"A refreshing new analysis of drug use that reveals how common misconceptions about illegal drugs are far too often not based on empirical evidence. . . . . [A] thought-provoking...[and] important work on substance abuse."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Combining memoir, popular science, and public policy, Hart's study lambasts current drug laws as draconian and repressive.... His is a provocative clarion call for students of sociology and policy-makers alike."--Publishers Weekly

"It's not every day you read a book that blows the lid off everything you've ever been taught about drugs, but Dr. Carl Hart's recent work...does just that. Part memoir, part myth-buster...a fast-paced read."--Huffington Post

"This mixing of personal story and hard research is interesting and appealing, in part because Hart isn't preachy and partly due to his unique history as someone who actually lived that which he's trying to help others avoid."--New Pittsburgh Courier

From the Back Cover:

A provocative and eye-opening memoir, High Price will change the way we think about addiction, poverty, and race, as well as our policies on drugs.

As Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences, groundbreaking neuroscientist Carl Hart has redefined our understanding of addiction. His controversial landmark research goes beyond the hype of the antidrug movement to shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and to explain why current policies are failing.

In High Price, Hart recalls his personal story--and though he escaped neighborhoods that were entrenched in systemic poverty, he has not turned his back on them. But balancing his former street life with his achievements today has not been easy--a struggle he reflects on publicly for the first time here.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0062015893
• ISBN 13: 9780062015891
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340