Overview

Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Habit Forming traces the history of unregulated drug use and dependency before 1914, when the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act limited sales of opiates and cocaine under US law. Many Americans used opiates and other drugs medically and became addicted. Some tried Hasheesh Candy, injected morphine, or visited opium dens, but neither use nor addiction was linked to crime, due to the dearth of restrictive laws. After the Civil War, American presses published extensively about domestic addiction. Later in the nineteenth century, many used cocaine and heroin as medicine. As addiction became a major public health issue, commentators typically sympathized with white, middle-class drug users, while criticizing such use by poor or working-class people and people of color. When habituation was associated with middle-class morphine users, few advocated for restricted drug access. By the 1910s, as use was increasingly associated with poor young men, support for regulations increased. In outlawing users' access to habit-forming drugs at the national level, a public health problem became a larger legal and social problem, one with an enduring influence on American drug laws and their enforcement.

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9780197646694

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Reviews

Most US drug histories begin with Richard Nixon. Elizabeth Kelly Gray boldly begins hers with Benjamin Franklin. She brings fresh, unusual sources to bear on a story that runs from the Revolution to the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act, from laudanum to heroin. Gray's big theme matches her scope. Her long nineteenth century of drug use hardened habits of drug-policing-skewed by users' race, class, nativity, and motives-as much as it hardened drug habits themselves. * David Courtwright, author of The Age of Addiction * Habit Forming presumes nothing about the way in which the world of 'legal' drugs functioned and instead asks new and interesting questions. It considers the ways in which drugs impacted the everyday life and experience-both exotic and mundane-of users and their families. Its broad sweep is not merely chronological but takes in a range of substances-from the familiar accounts of opium and cocaine to less-told accounts of hashish and peyote-and shows how Americans' complicated and contradictory dialogue about drugs was layered with assumptions about race, gender, and class. This work offers a foundation on which we can build a sense of what the drug war would later become and reminds us there is no single or inevitable way for society to respond to the problem of drugs. * Joseph F. Spillane, author of Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884-1920 *

Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914 is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library History of Medicine/Addiction collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. * J. W. Buck, Midwest Book Review * Most US drug histories begin with Richard Nixon. Elizabeth Kelly Gray boldly begins hers with Benjamin Franklin. She brings fresh, unusual sources to bear on a story that runs from the Revolution to the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act, from laudanum to heroin. Gray's big theme matches her scope. Her long nineteenth century of drug use hardened habits of drug-policing-skewed by users' race, class, nativity, and motives-as much as it hardened drug habits themselves. * David Courtwright, author of The Age of Addiction * Habit Forming presumes nothing about the way in which the world of 'legal' drugs functioned and instead asks new and interesting questions. It considers the ways in which drugs impacted the everyday life and experience—both exotic and mundane—of users and their families. Its broad sweep is not merely chronological but takes in a range of substances—from the familiar accounts of opium and cocaine to less-told accounts of hashish and peyote—and shows how Americans' complicated and contradictory dialogue about drugs was layered with assumptions about race, gender, and class. This work offers a foundation on which we can build a sense of what the drug war would later become and reminds us there is no single or inevitable way for society to respond to the problem of drugs. * Joseph F. Spillane, author of Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884-1920 * Habit Forming explores American addictions to 'false notions,' offering a delightful debunking of the practices and ideas that continually remake US drug policy patently unsafe for so many consumers. Dwelling on the flourishing array of forms of opium, cannabis (mainly in the form of hashish), and occasional forays into coca products, Elizabeth Kelly Gray...resourcefully examines the long 19thâcentury experiences of habitual consumers of these comestibles. * Nancy D. Campbell, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences * Habit Forming is an addictive read that keeps the reader hooked to the various destinies of habitués whose life stories and experiences support Gray's argument. While it is accessible to a wide audience, it will primarily appeal to students and scholars interested in the history of drug use and enforcement in the United States, as well as in scientific and psychological terminologies and theories of addiction. A crucial contribution to the fields of history and medical sciences, Habit Forming also offers a compelling portrayal of average people whose voices and experiences inform our understanding of the cultural and social dimension of addiction. * Adrien Lievin *

Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914 is a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to community and academic library History of Medicine/Addiction collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. * J. W. Buck, Midwest Book Review * Most US drug histories begin with Richard Nixon. Elizabeth Kelly Gray boldly begins hers with Benjamin Franklin. She brings fresh, unusual sources to bear on a story that runs from the Revolution to the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act, from laudanum to heroin. Gray's big theme matches her scope. Her long nineteenth century of drug use hardened habits of drug-policing-skewed by users' race, class, nativity, and motives-as much as it hardened drug habits themselves. * David Courtwright, author of The Age of Addiction * Habit Forming presumes nothing about the way in which the world of 'legal' drugs functioned and instead asks new and interesting questions. It considers the ways in which drugs impacted the everyday life and experience—both exotic and mundane—of users and their families. Its broad sweep is not merely chronological but takes in a range of substances—from the familiar accounts of opium and cocaine to less-told accounts of hashish and peyote—and shows how Americans' complicated and contradictory dialogue about drugs was layered with assumptions about race, gender, and class. This work offers a foundation on which we can build a sense of what the drug war would later become and reminds us there is no single or inevitable way for society to respond to the problem of drugs. * Joseph F. Spillane, author of Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884-1920 *

Author Information

Elizabeth Kelly Gray is Associate Professor of History at Towson University.

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