Forces of Habit

What drives the drug trade, and how has it come to be what it is today? A global history of the acquisition of progressively more potent means of altering ordinary waking consciousness, this book is the first to provide the big picture of the discovery, interchange, and exploitation of the planet's psychoactive resources, from tea and kola to opiates and amphetamines.

Why is tobacco legal and marijuana illegal? What is the difference between nations using alcohol to lure natives into questionable transactions, and drug dealers selling their products in dark corners (or broad daylight)? David Courtwright’s illuminating history of drugs in the modern world will shock and surprise readers who still believe that only criminals use—and want—drugs., [Courtwright’s] clearly written, thoughtful book…is unique in its broad scope… There is a lot to keep straight in this readable account. Though not a comprehensive history of drugs, it is good at identifying the trends and patterns from about the sixteenth century that have brought about Courtwright’s ‘psychoactive revolution.’ This is the book to go to when planning an assault on Jeopardy!, [With] entertaining details…[Courtwright’s] lively writing spices up a serious take on a grave subject. While Courtwright sees licit substances like tea and illegal heavy-hitters like cocaine as two ends of the same spectrum, he’s by no means trying to minimize the dangers of drugs. Rather, he wants to lay out the history clearly—perhaps partly hoping that if policy setters understand how drug use spread so widely and deeply, they’ll be better equipped to fight it., Alcohol joins caffeine and tobacco to round out what Courtwright calls the ‘big three’ of currently legal psychoactive drugs. As he sees it, modern civilization is practically unthinkable without this trio. But why have they fared so well while equally intoxicating substances—like, say, marijuana—are banned and stigmatized, and others—like kava, khat and betel—are popular only in distinct geographic areas? And why is tobacco currently falling in popularity, while alcohol and caffeine are holding their grip on us? These questions are only partly answered in Courtwright’s otherwise excellent book, but that’s not really his fault. Drugs are as deceptive and multifaceted as the human beings whose metabolisms they mess with; a history of drugs may be possible, but an analysis of their role in culture is bound to be incomplete and provisional. There are simply too many ways to tell the story… Courtwright’s historical investigation is solid and fascinating., A penetrating study of what the author deems one of the most significant events in world history: the ‘psychoactive revolution’… Courtwright traces the origins of [psychoactive] substances, showing how political and economic forces have combined to ‘transform the everyday consciousness of billions of people and, eventually, the environment itself.’ His tale is endlessly fascinating, with oddments enough to enliven a thousand dissertations and cocktail parties… He has succeeded admirably in a book likely to become a standard.

David T. Courtwright is Presidential Professor Emeritus at the University of North Florida and the author of Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America and Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World (both from Harvard). He was an inaugural recipient of a grant from the highly competitive NEH Public Scholar Program and is a regular media commentator on the history of addiction.