Crack
Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed

The crack cocaine years: from deviant globalization to the 'get money' culture of late twentieth-century America.

David Farber (Author)

9781108444064, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2022

302 pages, 11 b/w illus.
19.7 x 13 x 1.8 cm, 0.35 kg

'The social history of illicit drugs was lacking a thoroughly researched account on crack use in the 1980s and US historian David Farber has filled the gap with a concise, well-written and informative book that sheds light on a dark episode of contemporary American history, and further illustrates the link between racial and economic inequality and psychoactive substance abuse. The reading is at times absorbing, with some short biographies of crack dealers and users, which provide a fascinating glimpse into the underworld; ... In sum, this excellent tome will likely become the essential text for a contemporary social history of crack cocaine in the United States, and one that will hopefully spur more contributions, focusing on specific places in the country.' Chris Elcock, Canadian Journal of History

A shattering account of the crack cocaine years from award-winning American historian David Farber, Crack tells the story of the young men who bet their lives on the rewards of selling 'rock' cocaine, the people who gave themselves over to the crack pipe, and the often-merciless authorities who incarcerated legions of African Americans caught in the crack cocaine underworld. Based on interviews, archival research, judicial records, underground videos, and prison memoirs, Crack explains why, in a de-industrializing America in which market forces ruled and entrepreneurial risk-taking was celebrated, the crack industry was a lucrative enterprise for the 'Horatio Alger boys' of their place and time. These young, predominately African American entrepreneurs were profit-sharing partners in a deviant, criminal form of economic globalization. Hip Hop artists often celebrated their exploits but overwhelmingly, Americans - across racial lines -did not. Crack takes a hard look at the dark side of late twentieth-century capitalism.

Choosing crack: an introduction
1. First comes cocaine, then comes crack: origin stories
2. Crack the market: commodification and commercialization
3. Crack up: the cost of hard-core consumption
4. Crack money: manhood in the age of greed
5. Crackdown: the politics and laws of drug enforcement
6. Crack's retreat: a nation's slow, painful, and partial recovery.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]