Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opiate Control in Britain and France, 1821-1926 - Rilegato

Padwa, Howard

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1421404206 ISBN 13: 9781421404202

Casa editrice: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr, 2012

Riassunto

This comparative history examines the divergent paths taken by Britain and France in managing opiate abuse during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Though the governments of both nations viewed rising levels of opiate use as a problem, Britain and France took opposite courses of action in addressing the issue. The British sanctioned maintenance treatment for addiction, while the French authorities did not hesitate to take legal action against addicts and the doctors who prescribed drugs to them. Drawing on primary documents, Howard Padwa examines the factors that led to these disparate approaches. He finds that national policies were influenced by shifts in the composition of drug-using populations of the two countries and a marked divergence in British and French conceptions of citizenship.

Beyond shared concerns about public health and morality, Britain and France had different understandings of the threat that opiate abuse posed to their respective communities. Padwa traces the evolution of thinking on the matter in both countries, explaining why Britain took a less adversarial approach to domestic opiate abuse despite the productivity-sapping powers of this social poison, and why the relatively libertine French chose to attack opiate abuse. In the process, Padwa reveals the confluence of changes in medical knowledge, culture, politics, and drug-user demographics throughout the period, a convergence of forces that at once highlighted the issue and transformed it from one of individual health into a societal concern.

An insightful look at the development of drug discourses in the nineteenth century and drug policy in the twentieth century,Social Poison will appeal to scholars and students in public health and the history of medicine.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Well written and readable, thought-provoking and well researched."

(Jennifer D. Miglus Watermark)

"In contrast to other western nations, Britain treated narcotic addicts liberally for most of the twentieth century. Howard Padwa explains this famous anomaly by comparing the evolution of French and British policies. His insight is original and compelling: national self-perception is the key to national drug control."

(David Courtwright, author of Dark Paradise and Forces of Habit)

"Padwa's comparative approach is a smart one, and he effectively shows the ways in which multiple influences, including social and cultural ones, can shape drug policy for decades or longer."

(Elizabeth Kelly Gray Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences)

"An engaging and well-written book... Drawing on literature and archival material from both sides of the English Channel, Social Poison offers a comparative perspective that has often been missing from the existing historiography of illicit drugs."

(Alex Mold Bulletin of the History of Medicine)

"More comparative studies of this type would be very useful for historical scholarship about the opiates. Such accounts promise to be much more informative than the more usual advocacy-infused use of historical comparisons that have often been a feature of the popular drug policy literature."

(Wayne Hall Addiction)

"This book will be of interest to anyone involved in the treatment of addiction."

(Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists)

"This book is an excellent example of the value of fine-grained comparative study and a welcome addition to the growing body of work on drugs and addiction... Addiction continues to be a key social issue, and Social Poison is a persuasive reminder of the need for contemporary policymakers to take the long view and for historians actively to assist them in this enterprise."

(Stephanie Snow Isis)

"Howard Padwa's Social Poison is a useful addition to existing work on the topic."

(James H. Mills Social History of Medicine)

"Elegantly written and thoughtfully arranged."

(Anne Hardy Victorian Studies)

L'autore:

Howard Padwa is a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and the UCLA Center for Health Services and Society.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1421404206
• ISBN 13: 9781421404202
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 232