Customer Reviews

Cash Crop: An American Dream

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This is a book of oral histories of the early years of the marijuana industry in what's now known as the Emerald Triangle. Raphael writes that marijuana was a crop in the grand American tradition, spawning a generation of pioneers to the area. it allowed people, with very little beyond hard work and guts, to have a rural life, during years when rural America elsewhere was collapsing.

In my experience up in this area, he's quite right. the fact that the crop's price never stopped rising ($5000 a pound wholesale in mid-1990s) was of course crucial and something other pioneers never enjoyed. Many marijuana communities resemble quaint Americana, raising money for schools and hospices with bake sales and quilt raffles -- of course if you're crop is earning thousands a pound, then it's not hard to raise money at barn dances and bake sales.

this is a great book, quick to read and very perceptive....

Sam Quinones, [...]

Very interesting history of the formerly-isolated northern California area. Interviews are followed by author's comments. It documents the changing ways of subsisting and the impact of the introduction of marijuana farming. The book was published in 1985 and the interviews were earlier, so it's a moment in time. I'd like to see recent book on the subject.