HIST4477 · History

Drugs and Money

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Fulfills the LAMA Requirement for History Majors Amidst the current U.S. opioid epidemic, this course investigates how the pursuit of profit has intersected with constructions of health, illness, and social vice. Where and how have states and societies supported or tolerated widespread narcotic use? By the same token, what social, economic, and political processes transform use into social shame or criminal behavior? The course will look at the centuries-long opium trade between British India and China, the early history of commercial opioids around the world, and compare two U.S. epidemics in their global and local dimensions crack cocaine in the 1980s and opioids in the 2000s.