Miriam Kingsberg's fascinating book offers both a political and social history of modern Japan and a global history of narcotics in the modern world. 聽聽(University of California Press, 2013) locates the emergence of a series of three 鈥渕oral crusades鈥� against narcotics that each accompanied a perceived crisis in collective values and political legitimacy in nineteenth and twentieth century Japan. 聽
To read more about Prof. Kingsberg's聽award-winning book and hear the audio interview .听