Product Description
The story of cocaine isn't just about crime and profit; it's about psychoanalysis, about empire building, about exploitation, emancipation, and, ultimately, about power. To tell the story of the twentieth century without reference to this drug and its contribution is to miss a vital and fascinating strand of social history. Streatfeild examines the story of cocaine from its first medical uses to the world-wide chaos it causes today. His research takes him from the arcane reaches of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons; from the crackhouses of New York to the jungles of Bolivia and Colombia.

Amazon.com Review
Cocaine, writes filmmaker Dominic Streatfeild, "is not some evil spawn of Satan but simply a commodity." Like other commodities, cocaine has a history. When the Spanish conquistadors came to South America and observed that Indians who chewed the leaves of Erythroxylon coca could, it seemed, march over the tallest mountain or through the densest forest for days on end, they knew they were onto something. The newcomers took to growing coca themselves, and in time their product found an audience outside the continent, with users such as Sigmund Freud, Ernest Shackleton (who "took Forced March cocaine tablets to Antarctica in 1909 for the energy boost they gave"), Duke Ellington, and, eventually, half of Hollywood to testify to its powers. Streatfeild's appropriately rapid narrative takes in such key moments and players as "the year of cocaine" 1969, when the film Easy Rider reintroduced the drug to American popular culture, and George Jung, whose exploits are chronicled in Ted Demme's film Blow, to create a portrait of the drug that ranges over centuries. Though he supports legalization, Streatfeild acknowledges the evil and corruption surrounding the trade. Drawing lessons from history, he also suggests the possibility that "cocaine will fizzle out in the year 2015 the way it did in the early twentieth century." At the close of this absorbing book, he adds, "It deserves to." --Gregory McNamee

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 22 reviews)

An AMAZING BOOK - a must read for anyone interested in coke by kasime adames (New York)

5 Stars
July 31, 2009
This is my first time ever writing a review. I love looking at peoples reviews before making a purchase. It helps me get different perspectives on an item to be purchased. That being said, I am writing this review to let others know just how good of a read I found this book. I was introduced to this book by a friend who was reading it and loved it. After reading a few pages of his copy, I did not want to put it down. I ordered the book that same night. Once I got my copy, I couldn't put it down. In fact, my girlfriend argued with me because I wouldn't stop reading the book every chance I got. The book goes into a lot of detail, including a detailed history. It talks about the effects of the drug and experiments that were done on its addictive properties. There are tons exciting stories of drug cartels, traffickers, dealers and the governments involved. It even gets into why the farmers grow it. Most importantly, it talks about cocaine and its problems from a variety of different perspectives. Like I said, it is an AMAZING BOOK. A must read for anyone with an interest in coke.

FOR THOSE WHO INQUIRED THE HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION FROM COCA TO COCAINE by L.O (NYC, NY USA)

5 Stars
October 30, 2008
I've remembered my younger days as a kid always being told to stay away from drugs, and not to mention the famous slogan of "Crack is Wack." Whenever I walked with my mother through the streets of Lower Manhattan in New York City during the mid to late 1980's, I would notice a lot of crack vials and syringes on the floor. The violence drugs caused during the 1980's and early 1990's. I was always curious as to why many people were being killed for drugs. The movie Scarface answered many of my questions. During my freshman year of high school is when I first heard of Pablo Escobar, and it was in part of his death. I knew drugs profit in huge amounts of money, but then I wondered how it was made. While in high school, I've asked several people as to how it was made, but was not satisfied with the answer. I have always wondered the history of this drug. On occasions I've searched the internet looking for information regarding cocaine, but was not content with the results either, until I discovered this book on Amazon.com. Before purchasing this book, I had bought and read: Kings of Cocaine by Guy Gugliotta, and Jeff Leen; Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden; and The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War : An Undercover Odyssey by Michael Levine. All these books are 5 STARS as well. As I mentioned earlier I was familiar with the violence that drugs caused, but wondered on the history of the illicit drug. This book has answered all of my questions, and hopefully it will answer yours. The author goes in depth from Pre Columbian times, the world's advertisement for remedies, to its illegalization, and to the approximate present. I highly recommend this book.

Wow. by C. Lam (San Francisco, CA, USA)

5 Stars
May 20, 2008
I picked up this book a year ago with a couple other books for a Summer full of some readings. I never got to this one book since my first year of college kicked off by the time I got the chance to even open the book. Lately (with the boredom and unwillingness to study for midterms) I found this book while cleaning my room. I am regretting the moment I bought it, I cannot put this book down. I have only read the first 70 pages of this book and I find myself reading until the itty bitty hours of the morning. In some sense, it's a huge research paper with the perfect narrative and support. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, despite the appalling reaction the title of it creates.

Excellent! by S. Marshall (Atlanta GA USA)

5 Stars
February 08, 2008
This is an interesting historical journey for a non-scientist like myself. he author is humorous about his exhaustive research into the history, medical effects and cultural and political implications of cocaine. Highly recommend.

Great Material but Needed More Editing. by Bernard Chapin (CHICAGO! USA)

4 Stars
August 29, 2007
Dominic Streatfeild penned an excellent book outlining the nature, history, and effects of coca and cocaine. The unauthorized biography contains just about all the information there is pertaining to this topic. It is also written in a fun and breezy style. My only problem with the text is that it was about 100 pages too long. There are too many asides and too much meandering on tertiary topics in my opinion. The narrative is strongest at the beginning and at the end. Streatfeild's depiction of coca's discovery and indigenous use in South America is absolutely fascinating as are his later chapters on Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. This is a solid book in need of a bit of tightening.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire by Mark Bowden (Author) Doctor Dealer is the story of Larry Lavin, a bright, charismatic young man who rose from his working-class upbringing to win a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, earn Ivy League college and dental degrees, and buy his family a house in one of Philadelphia's most exclusive suburbs. But behind the facade of his success was a dark secret -- at every step of the way he was building the foundation for a cocaine empire that would grow to generate over $60 million in annual sales....
	The Pleasures of Cocaine by Adam Gottlieb (Author) The Pleasures of Cocaine conveys the impartial facts of the uses and abuses of cocaine. Without bias, many different aspects are covered: History, effects, uses, pleasures, dangers Avoiding abusive side effects Determining quality Substances used to cut coke and thier effects Testing for purity and removing impurities Improving appearance Inside look at dealing Cultivation of coca plants Coca leaf botany
	White Lines: Writers on Cocaine by Geno Zanetti (Editor), Stephen Hyde (Editor) Blow, candy, Charlie, coke, go, ice, rock, snow, crack. Whatever you call it, thrill seekers have surrendered to cocaine’s siren call, paid their toll, and sold their souls. Its embrace can be deadly, a place of no return, the ultimate rush, public enemy number one. From the gutter to the penthouse, inner city to outer burb, from the Third World coca farmer to the executive addict, coke is the lifeblood of a global black economy and an outlaw underground. Coke has also been dark muse,...
	All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence (Vintage) by Fox Butterfield (Author) A timely reissue of Fox Butterfield’s masterpiece, All God’s Children, a searing examination of the caustic cumulative effect of racism and violence over 5 generations of black Americans. Willie Bosket is a brilliant, violent man who began his criminal career at age five; his slaying of two subway riders at fifteen led to the passage of the first law in the nation allowing teenagers to be tried as adults. Butterfield traces the Bosket family back to their days as South Carolina...
	Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk (Author) For 20 years, the Cali drug cartel, a vast criminal conspiracy, pumped thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, laundered billions of dollars in profits and was responsible for endemic political corruption and an untold number of murders and assassinations. It ultimately controlled 70 percent of the world's cocaine market, flooding towns and cities with the addictive white powder dubbed the "champagne of drugs." Through organized violence, terrorist strategies,...