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maryquitecontrary_22's review against another edition
2.0
Toward the beginning stages of the publishing process of High Price, an editor dropped the ball in a big way. Someone should've said, "Dr. Price, you're trying to tell two completely different stories here: your memoir of growing up and out of the projects in Florida to eventually become a respected scientist and professor, and an unrelated story about drugs, drug policy, and addiction." How in the world did this book get published like this? Dr. Price has a good narrative to tell about his rise to success. And he has a great point to make about why drug policy in the US is completely wrong. However, these two topics have very little to do with one another and make reading them within one book really difficult. Until the last couple chapters of the the text, it's mainly about race relations in our country and Dr. Hart just tooting his own horn -- which makes the title and description very misleading.
alexandrabree's review against another edition
2.0
Too busy patting themselves on the back to tell a coherent story or discuss anything scientific in a thorough manner. Totally agree the war on drugs is a waste of time and money, and that society is 50% of all drug abuse problems not the drug. But get off your high horse and explain instead of preaching and pushing. All you get from shoving people is backlash
megs_k's review against another edition
5.0
And once I resolved to put in the effort, there was not much else to do other than submit to the experience and do the work. ~ Dr. Carl Hart
evelikesbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure why I found it such a struggle to read this. The information about drugs was really interesting, but I guess I didn't find Dr. Hart a compelling enough writer to want to read his memoir of his life, even though that was interesting as well.
willwork4airfare's review against another edition
3.0
Update: read this book again 4 years later. A lot of my original criticisms weren’t too far off— I don’t feel like this book it titled or marketed accurately. It is way less a book of science than a story of Dr. Hart’s history with drug policies. But after I got past that understanding and with the social awareness I’ve developed in the past 4 years, this is a much more compelling book and one I recommend to likeminded individuals. I still wish there had been more description of his work and the trials he ran, but it did get better and more direct as it continued.
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I found this book through tumblr and true to fashion, it didn't tell the whole story. What I wanted to read, what I expected to read, was a really interesting book about a study done by Dr. Carl Hart about his insights into drugs and the true nature of addiction. Something that was supposedly going to change everything I ever knew about drugs. Sounds compelling, right?
What I got was a 275 page autobiography.
I have learned NOTHING about drugs, at least not before page 143 when I finally gave up. I did, however, learn that he moved in with a rich white girl while he was stationed in England. I learned that he was once part of a really cool DJ group that got really popular people to come out and play with them. I learned that he was never even really that into drugs when he was growing up, but I got to read a nice, descriptive chapter about his first time smoking pot.
This book is a joke. There is no science in it. Maybe he's saving it all until the end and I just quit before it got good, but I did not sign up for reading about this random person's life. He prefaces the book by saying that it is highly autobiographical and he wishes he didn't have to get so personal, but that's just it-- he really doesn't.
I've read a lot of good quotes from this book and the actual science still sounds fascinating to me, but this is a really terrible book and is one I can't waste my time on anymore.
________________
I found this book through tumblr and true to fashion, it didn't tell the whole story. What I wanted to read, what I expected to read, was a really interesting book about a study done by Dr. Carl Hart about his insights into drugs and the true nature of addiction. Something that was supposedly going to change everything I ever knew about drugs. Sounds compelling, right?
What I got was a 275 page autobiography.
I have learned NOTHING about drugs, at least not before page 143 when I finally gave up. I did, however, learn that he moved in with a rich white girl while he was stationed in England. I learned that he was once part of a really cool DJ group that got really popular people to come out and play with them. I learned that he was never even really that into drugs when he was growing up, but I got to read a nice, descriptive chapter about his first time smoking pot.
This book is a joke. There is no science in it. Maybe he's saving it all until the end and I just quit before it got good, but I did not sign up for reading about this random person's life. He prefaces the book by saying that it is highly autobiographical and he wishes he didn't have to get so personal, but that's just it-- he really doesn't.
I've read a lot of good quotes from this book and the actual science still sounds fascinating to me, but this is a really terrible book and is one I can't waste my time on anymore.
fragglerocker's review against another edition
4.0
Thought provoking -- great mix of biography, reflecting one black man's journey from poverty to being a tenured track professor (including all of the cultural capital he had to acquire along the way), and an introductory overview of scientific study and experimental design. I would recommend this to a lay person unfamiliar with the study of science, and particularly to someone who has an interest in drug policy.
librarylapin's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed this eye opening book. In this memoir laced with scientific discovery, Dr. Hart demonstrates a lot of the ideas we have been sold in the war on drugs culture we inhabit. He talks about race and how our views on drugs, the media coverage, and the scientific ignorance about them have all lead to a social construct that devastates communities. In his unique perspective, in which he tackles the role of race in science and drug perceptions based on his personally lived story and his story as a scientist, the reader is able to to see how many myths can be decoded and demonstrated to be false. I did feel that there was an overabundance of bravado in the book. I realize much of it was intentional as the author's point about defending his reputation and having a lot of pride speaks to a motivational factor but at other points it felt like just bragging. When he makes a point to debunk the idea that scientists are "antisocial" (read nerdy), I didn't feel like there was any relevance to his thesis other than letting the reader know that he was very popular, athletic, etc. Aside from this I really enjoyed the format because I love memoir and the science was very methodically inserted into the story being told.