Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Schivelbusch. Vintage Books USA, $16 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-679-74438-2

This social history of pleasure-producing substances covers the Middle Ages to the modern era from the perch of an adroit and amiable Marxist sociology. Illustrations. (July)

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