A Brief History of Cocaine (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

--David Courtwright, author of Dark Paradise and Forces of Habit.

A Brief History of Cocaine is definitely an engaging read. Karch's second edition has been updated to include the most recent information on trafficking, consumption, cost, and trends …. For a relatively short book (188 pages) the author covers a wide variety of topics ranging from its trade as a commodity, the effects of cocaine abuse on society and even celebrity deaths. The common thread in this book is the comparison of old and new. This makes for a refreshing read, and one that is extremely relevant read for practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines.
- Sarah Kerrigan writing in the Journal of Forensic Science,Vol. 52, No.3 May 2007

A Brief History of Cocaine is definitely an engaging read. Karchs second edition has been updated to include the most recent information on trafficking, consumption, cost, and trends …. For a relatively short book (188 pages) the author covers a wide variety of topics ranging from its trade as a commodity, the effects of cocaine abuse on society and even celebrity deaths. The common thread in this book is the comparison of old and new. This makes for a refreshing read, and one that is extremely relevant read for practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines.
- Sarah Kerrigan writing in the Journal of Forensic Science,Vol. 52, No.3 May 2007

Bursting at the bindings with fascinating facts, Steven Karch's A Brief History of Cocaine is just that: the exploitation of the coca leaf and cocaine. We learn a lot.
- Adrian Branett, in New Scientist Magazine, April 1998

Bursting at the bindings with fascinating facts, Steven Karchs A Brief History of Cocaine is just that: the exploitation of the coca leaf and cocaine. We learn a lot.
- Adrian Branett, in New Scientist Magazine, April 1998

Say cocaine history and most people think of Pablo Escobar or disco or perhaps the original Coca-Cola. Steven Karch takes us back to the drugs critical early years, when the the coca plant was the object of intense curiosity and excitement among botanists and medical researchers. Full of outsized personalities and surprising details, A Brief History of Cocaine is a lively and readable introduction to the discovery, popularization, and globalization of cocaine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The timing is perfect for a book reminding us of the long history of cocaine and the periodic denial of past and present and realities that accompanies each new cocaine epidemic.
- Journal of the American Medical Association, June 14 2006

…Steven Karch does not claim that his book is the definitive history of cocaine, but it is the best volume on the topic…a convenient, scholarly, and well-written outline of cocaine's history.
- David F. Musto, Psychiatry, Yale University, in American Scientist, Volume 86

…painstakingly researched…both fascinating and enlightening…a detailed analysis of drug policy through centuries.
-New England Journal of Medicine 9/06

…painstakingly researched…both fascinating and enlightening…a detailed analysis of drug policy through centuries.
-New England Journal of Medicine 9/06 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A Brief History of Cocaine is a thoroughly researched, fascinating account of the role cocaine has played in worldwide history, politics, economics, and science. Travel with bestselling author Steven B. Karch as he traces the path of cocaine from the coca cash crops of Spain to the prestigious pharmaceutical houses of Amsterdam into the banking industry of Japan. Learn about experimentation with the drug throughout the centuries, including the work of Sigmund Freud, who suggested that cocaine be used to treat morphine addiction. Discover how cocaine has been grown, refined, distributed, and abused around the world for four centuries. Finally, understand why the cocaine trade remains a thriving business despite government regulation. An essential analysis of an age-old problem, A Brief History of Cocaine places the "war on drugs" in its historical context and predicts if we are destined to lose.

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: CRC Press (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849340195
• ISBN-13: 978-0849340192
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,756,847 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an eye-opening chronology of drug use in the world, May 3, 1999

By	Alex "Doc Ollie" Yaron, 1/327th, 1... (Palm Springs, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The author, who is also a physician, has now become a historian as well. His lucid and methodical recounting of the history of drugs use in general and cocaine in particular, truly opened my eyes. As a physician, he explains why the drug does what it does and why people use it. As a historian, he documents all his statements of fact with an extensive bibliography. He does not sound like he is on a crusade either for or against drugs, but one can't help come to a conclusion about the current state of affairs in the world's "war on drugs." A must-read book for anyone who claims to have an opinion on the issue of drugs in our society.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, unbiased, from an MD-historian, December 18, 2004

By	A_2007_reader (Vladivostok, Russia) - See all my reviews

The author writes well. The book is short and not packed with sidelights. Along the way the author draws parallels with today's headlines, and shows they are old news ("war on drugs" was tried by the Spanish; "zero tolerance" by the early FDA in the US during 1905).

As a bonus, the author explains medical oddities, as he is also the world's expert on drug effects on the body. For example, why cocaine injected is more toxic than cocaine ingested, why cocaine injected in certain parts of the body leads to fatalities while in other parts of the body does not, and why cocaine and wine (which was the basis for a very popular wine 150 years ago--Mariani wine which was one of the first 'celebrity endorsed' mass advertisement product) is more potent than cocaine alone. Also the origins of Merck (cocaine marketer) and Freud (unwitting or witting promoter), and the different species of cocaine plants (some more potent than others).

Packed with information: Coca-cola and cocaine (not enough drug to give you a buzz); the government sponsored use of cocaine (shades of today's North Korea); early explorers promoting cocaine when they should have known better; urban legends and cocaine; why pure cocaine will induce animals to kill themselves from overdose (unlike morphine, another alkaloid based drug).

As a bonus, you learn about cocaine manufacture (coca leaves plus lime, then add to the solution an organic solvent like kerosene, gasoline, or alcohol, then precipitate the solution into a solid by adding an acid (since the solution is base) like sulfuric acid, to yield almost pure cocaine powder).

Very good book for the intelligent person. You can clearly see that today's 'war on drugs' is distorted: any traveler to South America can drink "matte de coca" (Coca leaf tea) and not get high, but try that in North America and the prison lobby will send you to jail.

Dr. Karch's book is neutral on this issue but implicitly argues against a blunderbuss approach.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative, frustrating., November 5, 2006

By	John B. Coffin (El Cerrito, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Brief History of Cocaine, Second Edition (Hardcover)

Karch's book covers a vast amount of ground. As he explains, modern views of cocaine tend to ignore the vast literature written before computer indexing. His own papers on heart pathology in cocaine-related deaths led him to find that the topic had been explored a century earlier, and that the knowledge had been forgotten completely.

But... this is one of the most poorly edited books I have ever seen. Whole paragraphs are recycled in chapter after chapter, dates are misprinted, the index is useless etc. etc.

The same book, shortened by dropping the repetitions, or lengthened by following up on some of the tantalizing subjects hinted at (e.g just how did the Japanese military turn surplus cocaine into cash?), would be much more satisfying.