Begin forwarded message: > From: David Kalivas <[log in to unmask]> > Date: January 29, 2005 7:11:27 AM EST > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: drugs in world history > Reply-To: H-NET List for World History <[log in to unmask]> > > Cross-posted from H-ASIA: > > From: Ryan Dunch > H-ASIA Editor > [log in to unmask] > > >> H-ASIA >> December 17, 2004 >> >> Undergraduate History Curriculum/Sex and Drugs >> ********************************************************************** >> ** >> From: Carl Trocki <[log in to unmask]> >> >> Ian Welch's comment about thematic courses substituting for broad >> historical surveys is one I've found works well for upper division >> electives. One that I have used that makes it possible to incorporate >> the >> comfort women and that may perhaps answer Frank Conlon's question of >> "Where >> to do go from here?", is the "Sex and Drugs" theme. I started off just >> calling it Sex and Drugs in Southeast Asia, but then I found I could >> not >> keep India and China out of it, and as I dealt with questions of >> European >> empires in Asia, I could not stay away from the west, so it has >> ultimately >> become a global history. I suppose that there's no real reason why >> I've >> decided to keep sex together with drugs (other than it makes for a >> sensationalist course title) but together they do seem to help us >> understand a lot of neglected questions about the global political >> economy, >> the course of European empire and the formation of the global illegal >> economies. >> >> I begin with my own work on opium in the nineteenth century (Trocki >> 1999) >> and couple that with the work done by James Warren on prostitution in >> nineteenth century Singapore (Warrren 1993), then follow these themes >> through the twentieth looking at Courtwright's work on drugs >> (Courtwright >> 2000) and Al McCoy's work on the CIA and heroin (McCoy 1991). >> >> Understanding these economies on a global and historical scale makes >> it >> possible to deal with themes about the nature and course of empire >> and of >> the great movements of people, particularly labor in the modern >> era. British Singapore is a good starting place since it was founded >> to >> service the opium trade to China. It ended up drawing in vast numbers >> of >> Chinese coolies who were put to work in the Southeast Asian jungles >> producing pepper, tin, gold and ultimately rubber to service the >> growing >> industrial economies of the west. The labor to produce these products >> was >> essentially purchased with opium. The sex trade in Singapore started >> with >> women kidnapped from south China and some from Japan. Their main task >> was >> to service these laborers and get the money they did not spend on >> opium. >> Opium taxes largely supported the colonial states of Southeast Asia. >> >> The banning of opium and other "dangerous drugs" in the twentieth >> century >> is a story told by Bruce Johnson, Virginia Berridge and James Mills >> (Johnson 1975; Berridge and Edwards 1987; Mills 2003). Martin Booth >> and Al >> McCoy show how the Chinese opium trade was linked to both American >> organized crime and to US imperial ambitions. In the post-World War >> II >> era, as the CIA and other Americans sallied forth to fight the Cold >> War we >> can trace US imperial misadventures from Burma, to Laos, to Vietnam, >> to >> Nicaragua to Afghanistan. >> >> Along with the growth of the American empire came the expansion of the >> global sex trade. As soon as the Pacific War was over, there were >> American >> soldiers who needed "comfort women" in Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, >> Laos, Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia. The story of the 20th >> century sex >> trade is also closely linked to American imperial expansion and it is >> told >> by Cynthia Enloe, Saundra Strudevant and Brenda Stolzfus (Enloe 1983; >> Enloe >> 1989; Sturdevant and Stoltzfus 1993). >> >> In Asia, the American R&R industry helped lay the foundations for the >> sex >> tourist trade of the region as Ryan Bishop has shown. (Bishop 1998) >> And the >> sex trade lay at the foundation of the Asian economic miracle (at >> least in >> Thailand). >> >> Looking at the history of the world during the past two hundred years >> or so >> from the perspective of sex and drug trades gives us a new >> perspective on >> the direction and meaning of empire and the wealth of nations. I >> think of >> it as the history of the real world. >> >> References: >> Berridge, V. a. and G. Edwards (1987). Opium and the People: Opiate >> Use in >> Nineteenth Century England. New Haven and London, Yale University >> Press. >> Bishop, R. (1998). Night Market: Sexual Cultures and the Thai >> Economic >> Miracle,. London & New York, Routledge. >> Courtwright, D. (2000). Forces of Habit. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge >> University Press. >> Enloe, C. (1983). Does Khaki Become You? The Militarisation of Women's >> Lives. London, Pluto Press. >> Enloe, C. (1989). Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of >> International Politics. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press. >> Johnson, B. D. (1975). "Righteousness before Revenue: The Forgotten >> Moral >> Crusade Against the Indo-Chinese Opium Trade." Journal of Drug Issues >> (Fall, 1975): 304-326. >> McCoy, A. W. (1991). The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the >> Global >> Drug Trade. Brooklyn, New York, Lawrence Hill Books. >> Mills, J. H. (2003). Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade, and >> Prohibition >> 1800-1928. Oxford, Oxford University Press. >> Sturdevant, S. P. and B. Stoltzfus (1993). Let the Good Times Roll: >> Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia,. New York, Norton. >> Trocki, C. A. (1999). Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: >> A >> Study of the Asian Opium Trade. New York and London, Routledge. >> Warrren, J. F. (1993). Ah Ku and Karayuki-San: Prostitution in >> Singapore, >> 1870-1940. Singapore & New York, Oxford University Press. >> >> >> Carl A. Trocki >> Professor of Asian Studies >> School of Humanities >> Queensland University of Technology >> Beams Rd. >> Carseldine, Qld 4034 >> Phone:(o) 61-7-3864-4781 >> (h) 61-7-3869-1479 >> Fax: 61-7-3864-4719 >