High Society

Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture

£12.99
£12.99

Also available from:

'A vivid report on the other side of drugs' Hanif Kureishi, Guardian

Mind-altering drugs have been part of virtually every human culture that has ever existed. Mike Jay's narrative traverses the globe and ranges from prehistory to the present day, exploring the role of drugs from ayahuasca in the Amazon to coffee in early modern Europe, opium in China to the discovery of psychedelics. In the process, he shows how they have shaped cultures, kick-started global trade, transformed our understanding of the mind, built empires and threatened the fabric of society.
Extent: 192 pp
Format: Paperback
Illustrations: 157
Publication date: 2024-07-18
Size: 19.8 x 12.9 cm
ISBN: 9780500297940
CONTENTS A Universal Impulse High Societies • The Evolution of Drugs • Animal Intoxication • Drugs and Shamanism • Drugs and Culture • The Culture of Kava • The Culture of Betel • Drug Prohibitions • Drug Subcultures • The Cultures of Ecstasy From Apothecary to Laboratory What Is a Drug? • Drugs in Antiquity • Renaissance Herbals • Witches and Flying Ointments • The Invention of Laudanum • Linnaeus and the Enlightenment • The First Synthetic Drugs • Opium and the Romantics • The Club des Haschischins • Freud and Cocaine • Addiction and Drug Control • Mescaline{,} LSD and Beyond • Drugs of the Future The Drugs Trade Drugs of the New World • The Psychoactive Revolution • Tobacco in China{,} Tea in Europe • The Opium Wars • The Anti-Opium campaign • Temperance and Prohibition • The ‘War on Drugs’ • Epilogue: The Decline of Tobacco

Press Reviews

A vivid report on the other side of drugs
Hanif Kureishi, Books of the Year, Guardian

Excellent … shows that drug use stretches back too far, and too widely across the globe, to be considered an aberration of the human condition
Financial Times

An excellent book … a wonderfully open-ended subject
Daily Telegraph

Straightforward and engaging storytelling and cool headed analysis of use of, and attitudes towards, mind-altering drugs … deserves high praise for rendering a complex, controversial topic with clarity and elegance. It’s also good looking … quite marvellous
British Medical Journal

About the Author

Mike Jay has written widely on the cultural history of science, medicine and the mind. His books include The Influencing Machine, Psychonauts, Mescaline and This Way Madness Lies, the latter also published by Thames & Hudson. He is a research affiliate of the Health Humanities Centre at University College London and an Honorary Research Fellow at HHC/UCL.

You May Also Like

View more