Books by David T. Courtwright

We live in an age of addiction, from compulsive gaming and shopping to binge eating and opioid abuse. What can we do to resist temptations that insidiously and deliberately rewire our brains? Nothing, David Courtwright says, unless we understand the global enterprises whose "limbic capitalism" creates and caters to our bad habits.

In a newly enlarged edition of this book, David Courtwright offers an original interpretation of the dramatic change in the pattern of opiate addiction--from respectable upper-class matrons to lower-class urban males, often with a criminal record.

This book offers an explosive look at violence in America-why it is so prevalent, and what and who are responsible. Courtwright takes the long view of his subject, developing the historical pattern of violence and disorder in this country. Where there is violent and disorderly behavior, he shows, there are plenty of men, largely young and single.

Offering an overview of a half century of American politics, this book looks at the counterrevolutionary dreams of liberalism's enemies - to overturn people's reliance on expanding government, reverse the moral and sexual revolutions, and win the Culture War - and finds them largely unfulfilled.

A global history of the acquisition of progressively more potent means of altering ordinary waking consciousness, this book is the first to provide the big picture of the discovery, interchange, and exploitation of the planet's psychoactive resources, from tea and kola to opiates and amphetamines.