Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America

President Bush has made the war against drugs the number one issue on the contemporary American political agenda. In this revised edition of his classic book, available for the first time in paperback, Edward Jay Epstein argues that the president has adopted the strategy of his forebear, Richard Nixon, in using the drugs war to blame foreigners for the crisis in America's cities, and to provide a smokescreen for unrelated political activity designed to bolster executive power.

The drugs crackdown has seen an almost hundredfold increase in the federal budget for narco-politics in the fifteen years since Agency of Fear was first published, while statistics on drug-running have been massaged. Epstein points out that, despite the massive budgets and public relations brouhaha, drug importation, as measured against wholesale price, has in fact grown.

Author: Edward Jay Epstein
Publisher: Verso
Published: 11/17/1990
Pages: 362
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.12lbs
Size: 9.23h x 6.18w x 0.78d
ISBN13: 9780860915294
ISBN10: 0860915298
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | General
- Political Science | General

About the Author
Edward Jay Epstein's books include Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America, Deception: The Invisible War Between the CIA and the KGB, The Rise and Fall of Diamonds, Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth and News from Nowhere.