Challenging ''traditional thinking about both the 'rise' and 'fall' of drug problems'' (which makes legal prohibition the pivotal point in the story), Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884-1920 examines phenomena that have eluded earlier students of drug history. Joseph Spillane explores the role of American business in fostering consumer interest in cocaine during the years when no law proscribed its use, the ways in which authorities and social agents tried nonetheless to establish informal controls on the substance, and the mixed results they achieved.
