| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Frank Dikötter, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2004. Pp. xi, 319. $35.00.
China and opium are not just often closely associated in Western popular culture and history books; their combination represents a standard cliché for drug use. In Chinese and foreign views of the late nineteenth century, especially those expressed in public discourses, opium was the central source of China's ills. Even if such images are no longer taken at face value, the idea that opium had poisoned a large part of the Chinese population, seriously weakened its economy through the export of silver, and contributed to the civil unrest that dominated the republican period is still prevalent in the historical literature, especially in China.	1
Frank Dikötter, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun take up the challenge of revisiting the issue of opium and drug use in China from the end of the nineteenth century to 1949. Their approach deliberately sets aside the issue of traffic and supply to focus on consumption, public policies of drug control, and the treatment of drug addicts. While a large part of the volume is devoted to opium, the authors extend their inquiry to chemically-produced opiates and other drugs such as cocaine. The book is remarkably well organized, systematic in the coverage of the topic, and it does present, convincingly and successfully, a string of arguments for a reinterpretation of drug use in Chinese society.	. . .

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