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Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs
There is growing alarm over how drugs increasingly empower terrorists, insurgents, traffickers, and gangs. But by looking back not just years and decades but centuries, Peter Andreas reveals that the drugs-conflict nexus is actually an old story, and that powerful states have been its biggest beneficiaries.
In his path-breaking Killer High, Andreas shows how six psychoactive drugs--ranging from old to relatively new, mild to potent, licit to illicit, natural to synthetic--have proven to be particularly important war ingredients. This sweeping history tells the story of war from antiquity to the modern age through the lens of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamines, and cocaine. Beer and wine drenched ancient and medieval battlefields, and the distilling revolution lubricated the conquest and ethnic cleansing of the New World. Tobacco became globalized through soldiering, with soldiers hooked on smoking and governments hooked on taxing it. Caffeine and opium fueled imperial expansion and warfare. The commercialization of amphetamines in the twentieth century energized soldiers to fight harder, longer, and faster, while cocaine stimulated an increasingly militarized drug war that produced casualty numbers surpassing most civil wars. As Andreas demonstrates, armed conflict has become progressively more "drugged" with the introduction, mass production, and global spread of mind-altering substances. As a result, we cannot understand the history of war without including drugs, and we similarly cannot understand the history of drugs without including war. From ancient brews and battles to meth and modern warfare, drugs and war have grown up together and become addicted to each other.
In his path-breaking Killer High, Andreas shows how six psychoactive drugs--ranging from old to relatively new, mild to potent, licit to illicit, natural to synthetic--have proven to be particularly important war ingredients. This sweeping history tells the story of war from antiquity to the modern age through the lens of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamines, and cocaine. Beer and wine drenched ancient and medieval battlefields, and the distilling revolution lubricated the conquest and ethnic cleansing of the New World. Tobacco became globalized through soldiering, with soldiers hooked on smoking and governments hooked on taxing it. Caffeine and opium fueled imperial expansion and warfare. The commercialization of amphetamines in the twentieth century energized soldiers to fight harder, longer, and faster, while cocaine stimulated an increasingly militarized drug war that produced casualty numbers surpassing most civil wars. As Andreas demonstrates, armed conflict has become progressively more "drugged" with the introduction, mass production, and global spread of mind-altering substances. As a result, we cannot understand the history of war without including drugs, and we similarly cannot understand the history of drugs without including war. From ancient brews and battles to meth and modern warfare, drugs and war have grown up together and become addicted to each other.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 2, 2020
66 people are currently reading
1786 people want to read
About the author
Peter Andreas
42 books32 followersPeter Andreas is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. He was previously an Academy Scholar at Harvard University, a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and an SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellow on International Peace and Security. Andreas has written numerous books, published widely in scholarly journals and policy magazines, presented Congressional testimony, written op-eds for major newspapers, and provided frequent media commentary.
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June 19, 2023
La prossima guerra, la prossima droga
Peter Andreas è uno studioso di Politica e Relazioni Internazionali della Brown University e si è occupato molto di contrabbando e politiche di sorveglianza e di sicurezza. Questo libro tratta il legame storico, economico e geopolitico tra guerra e droghe, concentrandosi su sei sostanze: alcol, tabacco, caffeina, oppio (morfina e eroina), amfetamina e cocaina. Le aree geopolitiche al centro del lavoro sono l'Europa e gli Stati Uniti, il Sudamerica, la Cina e il Sudest asiatico.
Le droghe sono state strumenti per la formazione dello Stato moderno. Spesso i governi nazionali sono stati i maggiori beneficiari della relazione tra guerra e droga in termini di State building. Lo Stato nella storia contemporanea attua una guerra contro la droga principalmente in ragione di una affermazione di se stesso, in senso capitalista e militare. I soldati si sono trasformati in poliziotti, e così hanno fatto i membri del crimine organizzato. Quindi, gli Stati hanno fatto guerra alla droga e la guerra alla droga ha fatto gli Stati. In alcuni casi, lo Stato opera come un racket, creando la minaccia alla sicurezza per la quale fornisce poi protezione. Le ragioni della droga in contesto bellico sono essenzialmente tre: psicofisico, di sostegno a militari e civili; economico, tasse e finanziamento; strategico, finalizzato a obiettivi di natura geopolitica e mercantile. L'autore opera una distinzione del rapporto tra droga e guerra: sotto l'effetto di, grazie a, per la, contro la, dopo la. Questo testo costituisce un documento storiografico estremamente articolato e consistente, per comprendere come sia necessario uno sguardo storico stratificato, per rilevare come e perché il dominio militare rivesta un ruolo centrale nell'economia e nelle relazioni politiche delle società umane, e di come le droghe siano dai tempi antichi e fino ad oggi in modo ipertrofico protagoniste inesorabili dei conflitti globali.
Andreas racconta come la Gran Bretagna abbia agito come il primo vero “narcostato” nelle guerre dell'oppio per sottomettere la Cina; come l'oppio si sia trasformato nella coltivazione prevalente in forma di eroina al centro del conflitto del Vietnam e poi nella fonte di potere dei warlords in Afghanistan e nel Triangolo d'Oro. Scrive che il proibizionismo dello zar sulla vodka sia stata una causa scatenante per la rivoluzione del 1917; che la stessa Rivoluzione Americana e la guerra di Indipendenza abbiano a che fare con il rum e il whiskey e le distillerie diffuse sul territorio e soggette a dazi. Parla delle Guerre mondiali, dell'inarrestabile Blitzkrieg tedesco su Parigi e delle sigarette come mezzo di pagamento e della caffeina come forma di incentivo delle azioni belliche. Narra le strategie statunitensi in America Latina, sempre sul confine tra manipolazione, spionaggio, accumulo di capitali criminali, lotta contro comunismo e comunità di cocaleros, movimenti controinsurrezionalisti e sostegno a regimi dittatoriali e militari fondati su corruzione, assassini e crudeltà, e di come sia circolare la sostituzione tra milizie politiche di destra e sinistra e le gang di trafficanti, generando l'evoluzione del war-fighting in crime-fighting.
Peter Andreas è uno studioso di Politica e Relazioni Internazionali della Brown University e si è occupato molto di contrabbando e politiche di sorveglianza e di sicurezza. Questo libro tratta il legame storico, economico e geopolitico tra guerra e droghe, concentrandosi su sei sostanze: alcol, tabacco, caffeina, oppio (morfina e eroina), amfetamina e cocaina. Le aree geopolitiche al centro del lavoro sono l'Europa e gli Stati Uniti, il Sudamerica, la Cina e il Sudest asiatico.
Le droghe sono state strumenti per la formazione dello Stato moderno. Spesso i governi nazionali sono stati i maggiori beneficiari della relazione tra guerra e droga in termini di State building. Lo Stato nella storia contemporanea attua una guerra contro la droga principalmente in ragione di una affermazione di se stesso, in senso capitalista e militare. I soldati si sono trasformati in poliziotti, e così hanno fatto i membri del crimine organizzato. Quindi, gli Stati hanno fatto guerra alla droga e la guerra alla droga ha fatto gli Stati. In alcuni casi, lo Stato opera come un racket, creando la minaccia alla sicurezza per la quale fornisce poi protezione. Le ragioni della droga in contesto bellico sono essenzialmente tre: psicofisico, di sostegno a militari e civili; economico, tasse e finanziamento; strategico, finalizzato a obiettivi di natura geopolitica e mercantile. L'autore opera una distinzione del rapporto tra droga e guerra: sotto l'effetto di, grazie a, per la, contro la, dopo la. Questo testo costituisce un documento storiografico estremamente articolato e consistente, per comprendere come sia necessario uno sguardo storico stratificato, per rilevare come e perché il dominio militare rivesta un ruolo centrale nell'economia e nelle relazioni politiche delle società umane, e di come le droghe siano dai tempi antichi e fino ad oggi in modo ipertrofico protagoniste inesorabili dei conflitti globali.
Andreas racconta come la Gran Bretagna abbia agito come il primo vero “narcostato” nelle guerre dell'oppio per sottomettere la Cina; come l'oppio si sia trasformato nella coltivazione prevalente in forma di eroina al centro del conflitto del Vietnam e poi nella fonte di potere dei warlords in Afghanistan e nel Triangolo d'Oro. Scrive che il proibizionismo dello zar sulla vodka sia stata una causa scatenante per la rivoluzione del 1917; che la stessa Rivoluzione Americana e la guerra di Indipendenza abbiano a che fare con il rum e il whiskey e le distillerie diffuse sul territorio e soggette a dazi. Parla delle Guerre mondiali, dell'inarrestabile Blitzkrieg tedesco su Parigi e delle sigarette come mezzo di pagamento e della caffeina come forma di incentivo delle azioni belliche. Narra le strategie statunitensi in America Latina, sempre sul confine tra manipolazione, spionaggio, accumulo di capitali criminali, lotta contro comunismo e comunità di cocaleros, movimenti controinsurrezionalisti e sostegno a regimi dittatoriali e militari fondati su corruzione, assassini e crudeltà, e di come sia circolare la sostituzione tra milizie politiche di destra e sinistra e le gang di trafficanti, generando l'evoluzione del war-fighting in crime-fighting.
March 22, 2021
Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, cocaine, and amphetamines.
While most of us aware of the short and long term harm these substances can cause, how often do we consider them in the context of wars? How many wars occur because of them? For them? Against them? On them?
Peter Andreas in “Killer High” reminds us that the answer is, in some form or another, more often than not.
Governments have been both overthrown because of them as well as financed from them.
Some wars, and their successes, would have been impossible without them (see WW2 and the shocking amount of government subsidized methamphetamines. Both with the Axis and the Allied powers).
Some drugs, like cocaine and the war on drugs in general, provided a convenient excuse to continue funding weapons and a military bureaucracy for a United States desperately looking to justify military spending with the end of the Cold War. Or as an army general once said about a U.S. military present in Panama:
“Reflecting the new priorities, the US Southern Command in Panama was transformed into a de facto forward base for cocaine interdiction. Its commander, General Maxwell Thurman, frankly observed that the drug war was ‘the only war we’ve got.’"
This is such a fascinating book that is filled with lots of interesting information that even those familiar with these substances will learn something new here. Did you know for example that:
“The thirsty Vikings even managed to brew beer on board their longships during raiding campaigns. The skulls of their dead victims were turned into drinking containers. The Nordic toast ‘skal’ comes from the word scole, which means skull.”
“Warren Delano II, the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the creator of the family fortune, profited from shipping opium to China, calling it a ‘fair, honorable and legitimate trade’ that was no worse than trading in alcohol.”
“The name “heroin,” the trademark for which was registered by Friedrich Bayer & Co., derived from the German heroisch, which meant ‘heroic.’”
If there is one criticism I guess it would be that there isn’t much original research here. The vast majority of the section on methamphetamine use in the Third Reich comes from one book (Norman Ohler’s ‘Blitzed’, which is incidentally well worth the read), and the author often refers back to his own work in multiple citations (not a fan of this practice. “This is true because….I said it is”)
But if this is new material for you, as it mostly was for me, than it is not much of an issue.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to better understand the myriad and intertwined connections between illicit drugs and war.
August 28, 2023
This book combines dry data and dry humor for a very informative cultural read.
Like any other work in this style it focuses on uh well what it focuses on, so to say "Well it's doesn't take THIS thing into account!" isn't the best way to read it.
It definitely touches on the roll of alcohol in terms of bringing down Native populations but that could be a book in and of itself.
Like any other work in this style it focuses on uh well what it focuses on, so to say "Well it's doesn't take THIS thing into account!" isn't the best way to read it.
It definitely touches on the roll of alcohol in terms of bringing down Native populations but that could be a book in and of itself.
October 11, 2020
Dry and competent. The way I like my non-fiction.
August 4, 2021
An interesting survey of the relationship between war and drugs. I thought the final 2 sections (cocaine and conclusion) were particularly interesting, partly because many of the drug war events have happened in my lifetime and partly because the author discusses the nuance at how we could curb drug-related violence, largely caused by militarization of anti-drug groups and police.
While not in-depth at some points, this novel provides a good starting point for those curious about a history of the relationship between war and drugs.
While not in-depth at some points, this novel provides a good starting point for those curious about a history of the relationship between war and drugs.
April 15, 2021
An incredibly important read to provide context on our history as it pertains to the war on drugs.
February 8, 2021
Informative, but strangely quite boring, considering the topics.
April 30, 2023
The main points of the book.
The use of drugs in warfare is not a recent phenomenon, but rather a long-standing tradition that dates back to ancient times.
Governments have played a significant role in the spread of drugs, and drugs have been used as a tool of colonialism.
The use of drugs to control and manipulate soldiers is a common practice throughout history, from keeping them awake to boosting their aggression.
Killer High is an Interesting book that explores the history of war through the lens of six different drugs.
Peter Andreas, a professor of international studies at Brown University, takes readers on a journey through history to explore the role of drugs in warfare.
The book is well-researched and provides a unique perspective on the history of war through the lens of drugs. However, it should be noted that the dates jump around a lot and sometimes the connections from one instance to the next is a bit of a pull. Nonetheless, Killer High is an engaging and informative exploration of a topic that is often overlooked in traditional histories of war.
In his book, Andreas focuses on six drugs that have played a significant role in warfare throughout history. He explores how each drug was used, the effects it had on soldiers, and how it impacted the outcome of wars. And explores the role of governments in the spread of drugs. He sheds light on a little-known aspect of military history, and his insights are sure to spark discussion and debate among readers.
The rest of my review is on my website - https://betterworldwithdesign.com/kil...
The use of drugs in warfare is not a recent phenomenon, but rather a long-standing tradition that dates back to ancient times.
Governments have played a significant role in the spread of drugs, and drugs have been used as a tool of colonialism.
The use of drugs to control and manipulate soldiers is a common practice throughout history, from keeping them awake to boosting their aggression.
Killer High is an Interesting book that explores the history of war through the lens of six different drugs.
Peter Andreas, a professor of international studies at Brown University, takes readers on a journey through history to explore the role of drugs in warfare.
The book is well-researched and provides a unique perspective on the history of war through the lens of drugs. However, it should be noted that the dates jump around a lot and sometimes the connections from one instance to the next is a bit of a pull. Nonetheless, Killer High is an engaging and informative exploration of a topic that is often overlooked in traditional histories of war.
In his book, Andreas focuses on six drugs that have played a significant role in warfare throughout history. He explores how each drug was used, the effects it had on soldiers, and how it impacted the outcome of wars. And explores the role of governments in the spread of drugs. He sheds light on a little-known aspect of military history, and his insights are sure to spark discussion and debate among readers.
The rest of my review is on my website - https://betterworldwithdesign.com/kil...
March 27, 2020
(3.5 stars). This work looked at human history, especially war and law enforcement, through the prism of a series of drugs/substances. Discussing the impact of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium/heroin, cocaine and amphetamines, the author notes the history, the first uses by people, and how each was used in and/or drove conflict. Depending on the drug/substance in question, different parts of the world at different times in history reacted differently. However, all of the substances still have military impacts/applications today, for better or worse.
It is a very readable work, but given the scope, it tends to be a surface-level analysis of various nations/conflicts and the role of a specific substance. Worth a least a read and a good start for discussions and impacts. You can agree or disagree, but it should spark some discussion/debate.
It is a very readable work, but given the scope, it tends to be a surface-level analysis of various nations/conflicts and the role of a specific substance. Worth a least a read and a good start for discussions and impacts. You can agree or disagree, but it should spark some discussion/debate.
August 20, 2020
An average rating, nothing more.
An entertaining survey of the topic.
Not much to add to the superficial knowledge any well-read history buff doesn't already possess.
The last chspter in the book, a speculative one, is one of the most interesting chapters in the book.and has the sunstance to expand into a book itself.
But worth a read for some unfamiliar details.
Leaves the reader craving something more substantial, written by an author with a little more depth & talent.
An entertaining survey of the topic.
Not much to add to the superficial knowledge any well-read history buff doesn't already possess.
The last chspter in the book, a speculative one, is one of the most interesting chapters in the book.and has the sunstance to expand into a book itself.
But worth a read for some unfamiliar details.
Leaves the reader craving something more substantial, written by an author with a little more depth & talent.
September 27, 2022
Excellent book combining two of my interests: history and pharmacology. The six drugs are caffeine, tobacco, opium, cocaine, amphetamine, and alcohol. It may seem strange to think of caffeine and tobacco in the same manner as the others, but they have had some of the same effects as the others on history.
September 15, 2024
It was a bit contrived with how the author lumped everything togather, stretching a lot of definitions in the process. That said, there was a lot of fascinating info here. My favorite part was the section on the history of caffeine.
January 27, 2025
Põhjalik ja paljude allikaviidetega ülevaade, mis minu jaoks jäi siiski pisut kuivapoolseks. Võimalik, et tean teemast liiga vähe, et allikaid-üksikasju nautida ning liiga palju, et uudsuse võlu mind teksti neelama kannustaks.
January 4, 2021
This book will integrate nicely into my History & Globalization of the Drug Trade class. The chapter on amphetamines would be an interesting read for a general world history class when studying WWII.
August 11, 2021
Liiga palju kuivi fakte. Loe nagu teadustööd.
March 23, 2024
Definitely gave me a new perspective, it was delightful to read.
May 24, 2020
See my review at Reading World
January 7, 2021
This book was interesting and introduced a new side to several wars that I have never considered.
It was a bit speculative, but ultimately entertaining.
It was a bit speculative, but ultimately entertaining.
August 26, 2020
The book is a survey of the interaction between drugs and war throughout history, focusing on alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamines and cocaine. Some sections are more “readable” than others, that is, more narrative than encyclopedic. Lots of fun facts and a good overview for a general audience or people interested in this specific topic. Lots of focus on World War II, the Opium Wars and the war on drugs in Mexico. Overall I enjoyed this title!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews