What do the invention of anaesthetics in the middle of the 19th century, the Nazis' use of cocaine, and the development of Prozac have in common? The answer is that they're all products of the same logic that defines our contemporary era: "the age of anaesthesia." In Narcocapitalism, Laurent de Sutter shows how chemistry has become so much a part of us that we can't even see how much it has changed us. He retraces the unexpected stories that show how large aspects of our lives are now characterised by the management of our emotions through drugs, ranging from the everyday use of...