High Society. Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture

Every society is a high society. Every day, people drink coffee on European terraces and kava in Pacific villages; sniff cocaine in American suburbs and petrol in Aborigine slums; chew betel nut in Indonesian markets and coca leaf on Andean mountainsides; smoke ya’aba in Thai nightclubs and tobacco in every nation on earth. High Society explores the spectrum of drug use across the globe and throughout history, from its roots in animal intoxication to its future in designer neurochemicals. First published to accompany the highly successful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in 2010, and beautifully illustrated with rarely seen material from the museum’s collections, this striking, lyrical book is newly available in paperback.