COCAINECocaïn: History & Culture
"Your brain at this moment is composed of brigades of tiny Bolivian soldiers. They are tired and muddy from their long march through the night. There are holes in their boots and they are hungry. They need to be fed. The need the Bolivian Marching Powder. - Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, 1984
AUTHORIZED ASSOULINE RESELLER! - I am a legitimate authorized ASSOULINE Bookseller. All my Assouline books (with rare exceptions and noted if not) are purchased directly from Assouline as opposed to buying them in a bookstore and then reselling them. These are brand new, direct FROM Assouline and packaged as they came from them! Special orders welcomed!
In the popular imagination, cocaine appeared sometime in the 1970s, seemingly out of nowhere, as the ne plus ultra party drug for the disco generation; shortly thereafter, its destructive effects became impossible to ignore. But in fact, cocaine’s history of addiction dates back to the nineteenth century, when it was legal and sold over the counter.
Cocaine was once seen as a substance with incredible medicinal value. Indeed, even the famed Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud sung the drugs praises as a miracle worker, becoming one of the scores of doctors prescribing it to treat patients experiencing depression, stomach ailments, and menstrual cramps. Advertisements of the time even touted cocaine as an aid to help children with teething. For millennia before that, however, the unprocessed coca leaf had been essential to the development of indigenous South American cultures.
How did the sacred plant of the Incas become the addictive white powder that held in its grip—and nearly destroyed—prominent figures like Sigmund Freud and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among countless others? And how did it get to wield the corrosive power depicted in films and television series such as Scarface and Narcos?
This book tells that story!
Cocaine is more than meets the eye. The cultivation of the coca planet began over 8,000 years ago in South America. By the nineteenth century, the rest of the world was touting the drug as a “magical elixir,” able to cure the worst of ailments.
The drug’s role in modern history has undergone many shifts, especially during its heyday in the 1970s. Regardless of its various reputations, uses, and monikers, cocaine’s story is one that remains captivating.
More than anyone, it was Angelo Mariani that is most likely responsible for the drug's popularity. Vin Mariani (French: Mariani wine) was a coca wine and patent medicine created in the 1860s by Angelo Mariani, a French chemist from the island of Corsica. Mariani became intrigued with coca and its medical and economic potential after reading Paolo Mantegazza's paper on the effects of coca. Between 1863 and 1868 Mariani started marketing a coca wine called Vin Tonique Mariani (à la Coca du Pérou)[1] which was made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves.
The ethanol in the wine acted as a solvent and extracted the cocaine from the coca leaves. It originally contained 6 mg of cocaine per fluid ounce of wine (211.2 mg/L), but Vin Mariani that was to be exported contained 7.2 mg per ounce (253.4 mg/L), in order to compete with the higher cocaine content of similar drinks in the United States. Advertisements for Vin Mariani claimed that it would restore health, strength, energy and vitality.
Mariani marketed Vin Mariani for a number of ailments, touting its ability to increase energy, stimulate mood, increase sexual appetite and performance. It was promoted as a performance enhancer for creatives and athletes alike, and was endorsed by many notable people of its time. Mariani solicited testimonials from a broad range of European celebrities, including members of various royal families, politicians, artists, writers and other household names, and reprinted them in newspapers and magazines as advertisements. He claimed to have collected over four thousand such endorsements.
*Pope Leo XIII and later Pope Pius X were both Vin Mariani drinkers.Pope Leo appeared on a poster endorsing the wine and awarded a Vatican gold medal to Mariani for creating it.
*Thomas Edison claimed it helped him stay awake longer.
*Ulysses S. Grant drank Vin Mariani while writing his memoirs towards the end of his life.
*Jules Méline, the French prime minister, drank the wine despite being otherwise anti-alcohol.
*
Other notables who endorsed Vin Mariani include: Jules Verne, Kyrle Bellew, Émile Zola, Victorien Sardou, Henri Rochefort, Charles Gounod, Sarah Bernhardt, Emma Eames, Rosita Mauri, Lillian Russell, all of whom wrote testimonials, many of which appeared as Vin Mariani advertisements.
FACTUAL ANECDOTE: Inspiration for Coca-Cola Vin Mariani was apparently an inspiration for John S. Pemberton's 1885 coca wine drink, Pemberton's French Wine Coca. Pemberton's recipe was very similar to that of Vin Mariani, including the coca leaves. It was differentiated only by the inclusion of the African kola nut, the beverage's source of caffeine. Later that year, when Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia, passed prohibition legislation, Pemberton responded by developing a carbonated, non-alcoholic version of his French Wine Coca. He called the reformulated beverage Coca-Cola, for its stimulant ingredients coca leaves and kola nuts. Billed as a family-friendly "temperance drink", Coca Cola made it's debut in 1886. To this day, if cocaine ever becomes legal again, Coca Cola is the only company who retains the rights to use it in their product.
BRAND NEW HARDCOVER, 184 pages with
over 100 illustrations. Originally released in December 2018, it measures roughly 11x8x1". Still sealed in shrinkwrap, direct from Assouline.For MORE ASSOULINE books I have in stock, CLICK HERE! and I'll be happy to combine shipping for you!
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I really DO CARE about when and how your product gets to you. Because the post office is so incredibly inept, I ONLY SHIP domestic packages INSURED, which is AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDED in the shipping cost, and that is not free as the post office charges for it. If your parcel gets lost OR damaged in freight, your item will be replaced if one is available OR you will be completely refunded!
IMPORTANT MONEY SAVING TIP! If you are buying more than one of my items and would like to SAVE MONEY by COMBINING SHIPPING costs, I will be happy to do so, but eBay has now made it more difficult to get discounts by confusing people with "Buy it Now" and "Add to Cart" options on non-auction style pages. If you are buying one item from a seller use the Buy it Now. BUT IF YOU WANT COMBINED or FREE SHIPPING, DO NOT USE THE BUY IT NOW button! Instead, select ADD TO CART. Then use your BACK button on your browser and select the other items you want that qualify using ADD TO CART each time. When you are finished, look for the shopping cart icon at the top right corner of your eBay page and click on it. Find the blue button which reads COMMIT TO BUY & SEND REQUEST. Once done, the items will be held and I will create a single invoice with either combined or free shipping. NOTE: I cannot retroactively go back and combine items that are not purchased in this manner so PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.
Once you receive your invoice, payment is expected promptly! All of the payment info you need will be listed including multiple shipment options.
Some states will require sales tax to be collected. Ebay will collect such as required. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS!
PAYMENT OPTIONS:
.SHIPPING ADDRESSES: IMPORTANT!! I can ONLY SHIP to the address as noted in PAYPAL'S "TRANSACTION DETAILS". If you want it shipped to an alternate location, you will need to register that address BEFORE paying or it will be shipped to the registered address.
SHIPPING COSTS: Shipping costs will be determined by weight & destination! You may click on the SHIPPING & PAYMENT tab found at the top of the page, just under the item's picture for all shipping options to all destinations both domestic and international. There you will find drop down boxes for your location and you can then use the shipping calculator to determine the correct cost for where you live.
Media Mail (once known as 4th class mail) is a special class of postage for books, music, videos and other printed media available within the US and territories. It is far less expensive than Priority Mail, but - it ..... is ........... slooowwwww!!!! Despite USPS claims of 3-9 day delivery times, MEDIA MAIL CAN actually TAKE UP TO 3 WEEKS to arrive, and their tracking info is frequently not updated until it actually arrives, making that feature pretty useless! PLEASE remember this when you leave feedback scores as the choice is yours and not my fault if it takes a long time to get there! If you want it in a week or less, you are going to have to bite the bullet and pay for Priority Mail which will get it there in 2-3 working days, 99% of the time, but it is more expensive. Basically, the choice is yours, but if you choose media mail, please don't write to me in 5 days asking where your package is, because the post office will have it and most of the time, they don't have a clue!
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