Review: 'Emperors of Dreams' by Mike Jay

Originally published in 2000 'Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century' by Mike Jay is an extraordinary examination of the proliferation of various drugs during an enlightenment fueled Victorian age. Drawing on meticulous research, the book manages to combine elements of scientific, medical, literary and social history, in a manner befitting such a complex topic and the execution is highly readable, insightful and very entertaining.

The goal of this review is to examine the content and at the same time to draw lines of flight to twentieth century drug writing. Indeed, Mike draws his own conclusions between the differing attitudes of the centuries, socially, but we'll return to this at the end. Suffice to say it is the changing attitude of both the culture and the establishment that forms the crux of this differing perspective. The text itself is partitioned via the drugs; namely with chapters on nitrous oxide, opium, cannabis, ether, cocaine and mescaline. And is concluded with a look at the Temperance movement and alcohol prohibition. In many respects The Emperors of Dreams is a culmination narrative of the revisionist history of drugs, which took place at the end of last century but is also notable for taking into account the subjective efficacy of these substances as well.