A lively, perceptive refresher course on the politics of pot.
A comprehensive history of marijuana legalization in America.
In a book based on doctoral dissertation research on marijuana activism, writer and drug historian Dufton puts years of dedicated research, interviews, and social scrutiny to impressive use in this cannabis saga. Aside from a wealth of factual data, the legalization activists’ movement supports the framework of her chronicle. The author charts the roots of the marijuana movement back to the mid-1960s when a San Francisco–based grass-roots cannabis activist “politely asked to be arrested for smoking pot,” an offense that happened to be a felony in California at the time. His action, and its ensuing media coverage, spurred countless others to take up the cause and fight for change. The battle, spearheaded in part by poet Allen Ginsberg, became a fiercely political movement, with marijuana activists asserting that the current legislation was unconstitutional. Dufton notes that it was the organization and mobilization of pot advocates and their spirited rallies that turned the tide on the drug’s journey toward acceptance and normalization. With the 1970 formation of pro-marijuana group NORML and major decriminalization efforts celebrating great strides, marijuana activists were too euphoric to foresee the fearful, parent-fueled counterrevolution spearheaded by Nancy Reagan. The author’s astute, well-rounded report spotlights the virtual tug of war of the movement and pays close attention to each side’s setbacks and advancements. She presents an engrossing, evenhanded timeline of the marijuana legalization revolution and its backlash, including the 2012 legalization laws inspired by Robert Randall, who sued on a medical necessity defense after being arrested for possession. The final section, drawn from Dufton’s numerous interviews in the field, highlights six crucial lessons activists learned from their experiences promoting marijuana rights, including keeping a sensible perspective on the movement’s progress, respecting the opposition, and recognizing the power and the importance of money. The author hopes emphasizing these positives and pitfalls will galvanize future advocates in their work.
A lively, perceptive refresher course on the politics of pot.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-465-09616-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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