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Wheeling and Dealing

An Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community

Patricia A Adler author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Columbia University Press

Published:18th Mar '93

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Wheeling and Dealing cover

Wheeling and Dealing is a vivid account of the world inhabited by "wholesale" illicit drug traffickers. Based on six years of participant observation, fieldwork, and extensive interviews in an elite Southern California community of dealers, the book gives a rare glimpse into the decadent yet fascinating "subculture of drug trafficking and unending partying, mixed with occasional cloak-and-dagger subterfuge." This second edition brings the story up to date by revealing the fate of several of Adler's key informants. By tracing their lives over a fifteen-year span, Adler offers a unique longitudinal perspective on deviant careers and the reintegration of dealers into conventional society. She also analyzes the unintended consequences of the federal government's war on drugs, tying it to the increasing violence and organizational sophistication of drug traffickers and the rise of international cartels.

"A persuasive, credible, and imaginative analysis of a rather unusual and fascinating segment of social life... The very modest tone, scope, and aim of this tightly argued ethnographic work belies its profound and penetrating analysis of the drift of American life." -- Peter K. Manning, Contemporary Sociology

ISBN: 9780231081337

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

220 pages

second edition