Synopses & Reviews
Historian Isaac Campos combines wide-ranging archival research with the latest scholarship on the social and cultural dimensions of drug-related behavior in this telling of marijuana's remarkable history in Mexico. Introduced in the sixteenth century by the Spanish, cannabis came to Mexico as an industrial fiber and symbol of European empire. But, Campos demonstrates, as it gradually spread to indigenous pharmacopoeias, then prisons and soldiers' barracks, it took on both a Mexican name--marijuana--and identity as a quintessentially "Mexican" drug. A century ago, Mexicans believed that marijuana could instantly trigger madness and violence in its users, and the drug was outlawed nationwide in 1920. This book is an indispensable guide for anyone who hopes to understand the deep and complex origins of marijuana's controversial place in North American history.
Review
"Isaac Campos is, for my money, the best historian at work today on the history of marijuana, and he has written the best book that anyone could read on that topic."--John Charles Chasteen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Review
"This book is erudite, engaging and extremely relevant. A multidimensional history of marijuana, it examines the drug as an ancient commodity (both 'Oriental' and deeply Mexican), the beliefs about its effects through violent madness, and the prohibitionist obsession that, as Campos argues, Mexico also exported to the United States."--Pablo Piccato, Columbia University
Review
"Rigorous, learned, and accessible,
Home Grown offers the richest account yet of marijuana's early history in Mexico. It is cultural history at its best--interdisciplinary, materially grounded, deeply researched, and full of discoveries."--Emilio Kouri, University of Chicago
About the Author
Isaac Campos is assistant professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.