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Cocaine: An Unauthorised Biography - Hardcover

 
9781852279219: Cocaine: An Unauthorised Biography
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From South American coca in the fifth century BC, to Queen Victoria's endorsement of cocaine wine and Freud's use of cocaine in his discoveries, to the discovery of "crack" in 1983, cocaine has played a very important political, economic and social role. In the US, in one year alone, cocaine-related business costs the best part of $125 billion: cocaine as a commodity has an economic importance that far outweighs its intrinsic value. And now there's a new strand to this story - the possible discovery of a vaccine. Is this the end of the line for cocaine? In "Cocaine", Dominic Streatfeild sets out to discover not the history of organized drug crime, but the story of the drug itself. His research takes him from the arcane reaches of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons; from the crack houses of New York to the jungles of Bolivia and Colombia.

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Review:
"The best volume on charlie for years...addictive" (Observer)

"The most comprehensive and intelligent history of cocaine available today" (The Times)

"Stick your hooter into this volume and you won't be able to stop until you've sniffed out all of its contents" (Time Out)
From the Publisher:
A riveting read
I'll be honest: if a writer comes to you, and says they want to write a book about cocaine, you are immediately suspicious. You imagine the writer will sign a contract, take the first part of the advance, and disappear on a bender. It has happened. So it was important when we read Dominic's outline for his book that we knew what he was like as a person, whether or not he was the kind of guy who would take the money and run. And it was immediately clear that he wasn't going to do anything of the sort - here was someone who found the whole subject fascinating, and could convey that fascination well. This matters because the history of cocaine, as Dominic makes clear, is littered with the names of people who have been seduced by the drug; as the author writes, cocaine is about two things - money, and more money. The amount of money is literally incredible, and its seductive power no less extraordinary than the product itself. The story of cocaine isn't just about crime and profit, though; it's also about psychoanalysis, about empire building, about exploitation, about emancipation, and, in the end, about power. To tell the story of the twentieth century without reference to this drug and its contribution is to miss a vital strand of social history and Dominic amply sets the record straight in his book. That the book eventually makes clear the harm cocaine does, to individuals as well as society, is only one small part of its impact. We've had some booksellers refuse to stock it, as I can only suppose they thought the book glorifies drugs. How wrong can they be.

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  • PublisherVirgin Books
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 1852279214
  • ISBN 13 9781852279219
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages508
  • Rating

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