Forces of Habit pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024


Forces of Habit

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David T. Courtwright
Harvard University Press
2001-3-23
288
USD 24.95
Hardcover
9780674004580

图书标签:   社会  电子版  Harvard_University_Press  2001   


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发表于2024-12-25

Forces of Habit epub 下载 mobi 下载 pdf 下载 txt 电子书 下载 2024

Forces of Habit epub 下载 mobi 下载 pdf 下载 txt 电子书 下载 2024

Forces of Habit pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2024



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From Library Journal

Historian Courtwright (Violent Land) ranges widely across more than four centuries and the world to chart the "psychoactive revolution" that made ever more potent drugs available to all classes of people and redefined the meaning and means of consciousness, and even social conscience. As pleasure came to matter more, drugs of all kinds found ready takers. Courtwright gathers up historical, scientific, literary, artistic, and public policy references on psychoactive substances, legal and illegal, to show how drug usage was as much an outgrowth of market forces as cultural habits. Drugs were commerce and currency and moved from geographically limited areas of cultivation to worldwide consumption, with ever more efficient means of production and supply driving down prices and thereby opening markets to the poorest. Efforts by governments over the past century to outlaw particular drugs, while regulating others, have proved uneven and erratic. Always intelligent and informed, witty and wise, Courtwright's book is the best way to get a fix on why getting drugs out of our systems would require more than abstinence; it would take another revolution in handling social and personal pain. An essential acquisition.DRandall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Set on a world stage, this book is about the ``psychoactive revolution'' of the past 500 years. Courtwright, well known for his work concerning the history of drug addiction and, more generally, social history, observes that in wealthy societies in the 20th century a cornucopia of drugs, illicit and licit, became available and popular. How did this situation arise, he asks, and how have societies and governments coped with it, and especially, why have some drugs posed more of a problem than others? The main story relates to the expansion of European oceangoing commerce in early modern times and the resulting discoveries of new commercial opportunities. In the drug trade, the three big items eventually became alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, to the exclusion of other possibilities derived from the plant world. These three drugs remain abundant and profitable commodities, eliciting various responses in different societies.

Thus, this book is not about medicine itself or about the changing practices of physicians over the centuries. Although the author mentions those practices from time to time, he is concerned with the broader story of the sweeping changes in the markets, and thereby in the uses, of a range of substances. And he explains how governments have responded differently in different ages to the growing commodification and popularity of psychoactive substances. Alcohol and caffeine were, of course, Old World products whose spread became enormously wider as a result of European expansion and European technology. Tobacco was a New World plant that conquered the Old World after Europeans discovered its psychoactive (and addictive) properties. At about the same time, advances in distilling techniques and the spread of information about them through the printed word created opportunities for making and selling alcohol. After their conquest of South America, some Europeans began cultivating coffee on that continent, while elsewhere other Europeans were expanding the tea trade. Alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine soon became important trade commodities, the taxation of which was a mainstay of government finances.

Courtwright does not confine his story to the big three in the drug world. He also writes about cannabis, opium, coca and cocaine, and synthetic products. None of these substances or their derivatives became commodified in quite the same way as did the big three, although there were important regional exceptions, such as the infamous opium dens of the Chinese. Part of the story of the lesser-used drugs is the relative absence of their commercialization. For example, until well into the 20th century, smoking marijuana was a practice of particular -- and relatively small -- populations in certain regions. Nor is Courtwright's analysis entirely commercial. To the Christian Europeans, the Amerindians' use of plant hallucinogens such as peyote was reprehensible.

One essential difference with respect to alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine was the skill of entrepreneurs and their resulting profits and power in promoting these products. Courtwright's approach is to paint a large picture, while occasionally delving in some depth into particulars. He writes about James Duke and the growth of the cigarette trade after the late 19th century. The industry that Duke's ingenuity and acumen fostered became very powerful, and it remains so today, able to fight off efforts to restrict it severely or even to eradicate it, however steep is the mountain of evidence about the ill effects of tobacco use.

Herein lies the story of a sea change in social approaches to drug use and the drug trades. With the advance of industrialized societies, concern mounted about the effects of psychoactive substances. Altered states of consciousness do not mix well with the needs of a technologically complex civilization. Europeans sometimes tolerated altered states of consciousness among peasants and workers as a means of easing the pain of their often miserable lives, especially in early modern times. Views changed with advancing industrialization in the 19th century, however. Even so, efforts to control the use of tobacco and alcohol detract from their potential as objects of taxation (and contradict the realities of their use). The enormous power of the tobacco and alcohol industries has overcome efforts to ban or restrict their products. When the United States, for instance, prohibited the liquor trades in 1920, wealthy Americans eventually engineered the law's repeal by arguing that it would promote an economic revival (repeal occurred in 1933, the nadir of the Great Depression) and pointing out the benefits of having alcohol taxes.

In the case of other drugs that were declared illicit during the industrial age in some places, there are ongoing efforts to eradicate their use. Courtwright is known for his use of historical knowledge to argue against the legalization of ``drugs,'' and he does so again in a concluding chapter dealing with dangerous psychoactive substances in the 21st century.

Courtwright writes with felicity, gracefully constructing his narrative in a clearly organized fashion, eschewing jargon and technical language. This is an engaging book that deserves a wide audience among general readers.

Forces of Habit 下载 mobi epub pdf txt 电子书

著者简介

David T. Courtwright is John A. Delaney Presidential Professor at the University of North Florida.


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01 读了一本有趣的书。一位美国历史学教授写的《上瘾五百年》,讲的是“瘾品”在过去的几百年间是如何改变了世界的面貌,以及或多或少地影响了我们每一个人。 那么什么是”瘾品“? 简单地说,”瘾品“就是那些能让人”上瘾“的东西,比如说,酒精,烟草,咖啡因饮料,大麻,鸦...  

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我没成为酒鬼,是因为我从来都拒绝第一杯酒。(洛克菲勒) 洛克菲勒是个有钱人,每个洛克菲勒好像都很有钱。 洛克菲勒家有很多有趣的故事,因为他们很有钱,所以大家喜欢讲的,往往是那些有关解释他们为何有钱的段子。但最有趣的,其实是我上面引用的那句话。 并且,洛克...  

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01 读了一本有趣的书。一位美国历史学教授写的《上瘾五百年》,讲的是“瘾品”在过去的几百年间是如何改变了世界的面貌,以及或多或少地影响了我们每一个人。 那么什么是”瘾品“? 简单地说,”瘾品“就是那些能让人”上瘾“的东西,比如说,酒精,烟草,咖啡因饮料,大麻,鸦...  

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很感激翻开这本书,因为这本书让我看到人类的另外一面,了解了更多关于瘾品以及人类,原来带着瘾品的有色眼镜看出来,世界是这样一种模样。 这本书非常全面的介绍了各种可以使人得到快乐感觉并最终会上瘾的各种瘾品,并且简要的介绍了500年以来在各个国家地区间这些瘾品的发展...  

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这本书从全球近代史的维度很好地说明了一个基本问题,那就是近现代的瘾品泛滥问题,完全是与资本主义全球扩张结合在一起的,凡是不能乘上这股商业大潮的瘾品,无论其历史多么悠久效果多么神奇毒性多么强烈,都绝对无法成为真正世界性的问题,事实上它们将只会是一种地区和部族...  

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