Hemp - American History Revisited: The Plant with a Divided History

Hemp — American History Revisited shines a sharp, engaging light on a plant that has quietly shaped economies, wars, and social policy for thousands of years — and then was suddenly pushed into the shadows.R. Deitch traces the astonishingly broad role of cannabis, from ancient fiber and medicine to colonial cash crop and modern political boogeyman. Early chapters follow hemp’s importance to Old World navies and trade, then show how it helped power the growth of the American colonies, influenced British colonial policy, and supported agrarian life from Jamestown through the Civil War. Along the way, Deitch explains why a rugged, fast growing “weed” was once considered essential for rope, canvas, paper, food, and even early “linen.”The book then turns to the crucible of the 19th and 20th centuries: temperance campaigns, the rise of alcohol prohibition, the Harrison Anti Narcotics Act, and the growing moral panic around drugs. Deitch connects these movements to industrial and political interests that, he argues, used fear of “marijuana” to wipe out traditional hemp — culminating in the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act and its far reaching economic and social consequences.Later chapters follow the story through World War II, the postwar drug bureaucracy, Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Beat and hippie eras, the war in Vietnam, Nixon’s “war on drugs,” and the revival of reform efforts in the 1970s and 1980s. The book also looks at major government studies (from the LaGuardia Report to the 1972 Presidential Commission), and how their often-cautious conclusions clashed with political rhetoric.Deitch closes by arguing that modern hemp could ease pressure on forests and petroleum, and that the long campaign against cannabis has distorted markets, civil liberties, and public understanding of American history itself. Both accessible and provocative, Hemp — American History Revisited offers readers a fresh way to look at familiar events through the lens of one controversial plant. Read more