Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:00-3:20 pm

Dr. Isaac Campos

This course uses the history of marijuana as a vehicle for the study of Modern Mexican history.

Students will learn how marijuana came to be associated with violence and madness in the nineteenth century and then a century later became one of the country’s most valuable cash crops as an illicit internationally traded good. While following cannabis through time, students will also learn the basic contours of Modern Mexican history in general, from the colonial era through independence, the Mexican Revolution, the rise of the PRI’s “perfect dictatorship,” and down to the recent crisis of violence.

The course will serve as a foundation for the further study of the history of modern Mexico and illicit drugs.