Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug - Tapa blanda

This excellent book adds a definitive archive-based history of cocaine. . . . A model of how to examine a particular drug substance in a specific part of the world while placing that examination in the broadest context.--Society & History A truly fascinating and important book. . . .The role of coca and cocaine in Andean development is given a treatment which it is rarely accorded.--Journal of Latin American studies An outstanding contribution to the history of narcotics and to the new global history....Andean Cocaine expands our knowledge of the commodity chain and global markets....[It] is an essential work for any scholar or student of the histories of narcotics, Latin America, and economics.--H-Net Reviews The anti-cocainism that arose in the United States transformed cocaine into a global threat in the first part of the 20th century. . . . This huge work untangles the multiple mechanisms of cocaine's social, local, and global construction, which transmuted a medical drug and commodity into a world menace with a war declared against it.Gootenberg has written a history that will make history.--European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies An outstanding book, a superb example of first-rate scholarship written with energy, confidence, respect for facts, and excellent style. In addition it is a readable, fascinating, and important story. . . . It ranks among the very best contributions to several literatures and will be valued by those interested in globalization, development, and economic and business history, as well as anyone simply curious to understand the world.--American Historical Review A truly fascinating and important book.--Journal of Latin American Studies An important study indispensable to understanding a vexing social dilemma that affects the US and Latin America.--Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and Environment Thorough, eminently readable, and fascinating. . . . This tour de force illustrates how a fresh, insightful focus on a single commodity can illuminate economic development, political and social concerns, shifting ideologies, and cultural change, both locally and globally. Highly recommended.--Choice Excellent. . . . Gootenberg offers a critical perspective on the place of cocaine in the Western imaginary and in the real political and economic world.--Comparative Studies in Society and Culture Unquestionably the single most important volume on cocaine's international history, richly documented, and conceptually exciting. . . . Deserves a very wide audience, and will hopefully spark similar efforts in the drug and alcohol field.--Social History of Drugs and Alcohol The research that went into [Andean Cocaine] shows inspiration, dogged persistence, and a meticulous eye for detail.--Journal of Historical Geography A sophisticated analysis of cocaine commodity chains and public policy based on extensive archival research and a firm grasp of Peruvian history. The book should stand as the standard economic history of Andean cocaine for years to come.--Journal of Interdisciplinary History [An] exceptionally well-researched and sophisticated world history of cocaine. . . . A provocative, wide-ranging, and convincing account.--The Historian A sterling contribution to the literature of cocaine, and should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand cocaine in context.--Drug War Chronicle A book of great insight and academic rigor . . . that unearths this forgotten history.--Caretas A great deal of new information . . . that will excite scholars and lay readers alike. . . . An exceptionally strong piece of scholarship. It advances social scientists' understanding of the developmental trajectory [of] cocaine, and by extension, other luxury goods, while underscoring the value of this method of inquiry in understanding the emergence and maturation of commodities in a global political economy.--Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology A well-written and thoroughly-researched study. . . . The impressive array of sources and new interpretations of the role of cocaine in Peruvian and global histories make this a must-read for scholars in a number of fields, including Latin American history and politics, global and comparative histories, and cultural and economic studies. Gootenberg makes important contributions to the study of drug history in general, and the history of cocaine in particular, by placing the coca plant and cocaine in a global perspective while still maintaining a focus on the local context.--Journal of World History An indispensable point of departure for serious students of [the history of the cocaine trade].--The Latin American Review of Books Puts the discussion into a global perspective. . . . Gootenberg thus joins a distinguished group of scholars. . . . Indispensable reading for graduate seminars on economic, cultural, and social history, and shall appeal not only to experts on Latin America but also to world historians and those interested in comparative history.--The Americas The book transcends mere macro-economic analysis by highlighting the agentive dimension of people on the ground. . . . With a keen eye for documenting the socio-economic, political, and cultural structures triggering the reformulation of cocaine into an illicit commodity.--ID: International Dialogue, A Multidisciplinary Journal of World Affairs

Illuminating a hidden and fascinating chapter in the history of globalization, Paul Gootenberg chronicles the rise of one of the most spectacular and now illegal Latin American exports: cocaine.

Gootenberg traces cocaine's history from its origins as a medical commodity in the nineteenth century to its repression during the early twentieth century and its dramatic reemergence as an illicit good after World War II. Connecting the story of the drug's transformations is a host of people, products, and processes: Sigmund Freud, Coca-Cola, and Pablo Escobar all make appearances, exemplifying the global influences that have shaped the history of cocaine. But Gootenberg decenters the familiar story to uncover the roles played by hitherto obscure but vital Andean actors as well--for example, the Peruvian pharmacist who developed the techniques for refining cocaine on an industrial scale and the creators of the original drug-smuggling networks that decades later would be taken over by Colombian traffickers.

Andean Cocaine proves indispensable to understanding one of the most vexing social dilemmas of the late twentieth-century Americas: the American cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and, in its wake, the seemingly endless U.S. drug war in the Andes.