High Society - Mind Altering Drugs in History and Culture

High Society explores the proliferation of mind-altering substances both around the world and throughout history. Cultural historian Mike Jay discusses the roles that drugs play as medicines, religious sacraments, status symbols and trade goods. His premise is that every society is a high society, but the type and status of those drugs change from place to place - coffee on a terrace in European cities, betel nuts in Indonesian Markets, Ecstasy in the clubs of Amsterdam, Kava in Pacific villages, Cocaine in US suburbs, Tobacco everywhere. Attitudes and preferences change over time but the drug of choice has a profound impact on that society.

From the classical world through the mind-bending self-experiments of early scientists to the present 'war on drugs', he reveals how the international trade in substances such as tobacco, tea and opium shaped the modern world. This book is an interesting antidote to the moral panic often raised with the topic, particularly when we find ourselves in the middle of a cultural shift in relation to recreational drug use at the same time as there is an opioid epidemic. 

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Who wrote it?
Mike Jay

How does it come?
Paperback. 19.5 x 13 x 1 cm. 186 pages