Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher's genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine.0Beginning with opium, the "joy plant," which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book

• The joy plant
• Lady Mary'smonster
• The Mickey Finn
• How to soothe your cough with heroin
• Magic bullets
• The least explored territory on the planet
• Interlude: The golden age
• Sex, drugs, and more drugs
• The enchanted ring
• Statins : a personal story
• A perfection of blood
• Epilogue: The future of drugs