During the past few decades a number of scholars have begun exploring a new range of questions regarding drugs and the drug trade. David Courtwright has been foremost in developing what might be understood as the “new history of drugs.” This slim volume is a tour de force of this approach, a sophisticated analysis of an extremely complex historical phenomenon. His simple and elegant style is suitable for the general reader, an undergraduate, or a specialist. Courtwright's study of the relationship between human beings, Western civilization, and our retinue of psychoactive substances is a penetrating overview of the global panorama during the past five centuries.