Pleasure and Panic

New Essays on the History of Alcohol and Drugs

Cheryl Krasnick Warsh editor Dan Malleck editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of British Columbia Press

Published:15th Jun '22

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

Pleasure and Panic cover

Booze, dope, smokes, and weed. Mind-altering, mood-changing substances have been part of human society for millennia. And the history of drugs and alcohol is infused with what we understand as their proper and improper use.

Pleasure and Panic reveals how cultural fears and social, political, and economic disparities have always been deeply embedded in attitudes about drugs and alcohol. Long before John Lennon testified at Canada’s Le Dain Commission in favour of marijuana decriminalization, social movements existed to challenge the view that consumption of mind-altering substances, especially by young people, posed a danger to society. The contributors to this collection explore how drugs and alcohol intersect with diverse histories, including gender, medicine, popular culture, and business.

Pleasure and Panic brings a dispassionate voice to current debates about liberalizing drug and alcohol laws and challenges existing ideas about how to deal with the so-called problems of drug and alcohol use.

[Pleasure and Panic] is a compilation of fascinating studies that examine how the regulation and use of addictive substances have informed social movements, medical innovations, marketing, and even cultural identity.

-- Dave Hazzan * Literary Review of Canada *

"Despite the primarily Canadian focus and origins of this collection, there is much here for anyone broadly interested in the history of intoxicants."

-- David Adler, Bournemouth University * The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs *
Taken together, this collection [of essays] provides a valuable "state of the field," especially with regards to the history of drugs and alcohol in the Canadian context. -- Catherine Carstairs, University of Guelph * Canadian Journal of Health Histo

ISBN: 9780774867511

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 600g

280 pages