(After Babel Substack) – The book was The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business, by historian David Courtwright, at the University of North Florida. Courtwright begins with humanity’s eternal quest for pleasure from the plants and animals found in nature. It used to take a lot of work and bee stings to obtain a few servings of honey. But the agricultural revolution, and later the invention of money, and later the industrial revolution, brought Western civilization to the point where vast quantities of quick-dopamine products (candy, cigarettes, crack cocaine) could be obtained easily and cheaply, even by the poor, who were often the main targets of these industries.

Courtwright tells the story of “limbic capitalism,” a term he coined to describe an economic system where industries take advantage of the brain’s limbic system — which regulates emotions, motivations, and memory — to drive overconsumption of brain-rewarding products. (Read More)