Coca

As most noted before me, Paul Gootenberg presents a dynamic, expansive portrayal of a now infamous commodity in Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug. Having my own dynamic relationship with his subject matter, it has been interesting to learn of cocaine’s broader evolution. My own interactions with the region, its culture, and its exports have been limited to the last couple decades; and my understanding has thus been framed by The Global War on Drugs. Personally, I feel some aspects of his work seem over-romanticized (Bolivia and lush should never be placed in the same sentence); but Gootenberg succeeds in demonstrating the push-pull relationships, cultural implications, and political fire-bombings that contributed to form our present condition (his ultimate goal, I think).

Jim and Joseph rightfully point out the importance of State actors (specifically the US) in this work as Gootenberg certainly focuses on higher-tier players. This work is but another in a long tradition of works that demonstrate the line between public and private must be seen as wavy, gray, porous, permeable, etc., etc… Moreover, there is a splendid irony present throughout this work as cocaine crusaders effectively played whack-a-mole with regimes and producers.  The important point to take away from this work, to me, is Gootenberg’s effective examination of implications. That is to say, Gootenberg’s story hits at the idea that policies and ideas, however insignificant they may seem to one party, can foster dramatic results for another. This especially holds true for partners in commodity chain-web-things.