Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger’s War on Drugs

Harvard Book Store welcomes author Alexandra Chasin, associate professor of literary studies at the New School, for a discussion of her latest book, Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger’s War on Drugs. In Assassin of Youth, Chasin gives us a lyrical, digressive, funny, and ultimately riveting quasi-biography of Harry J.Anslinger, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from its establishment in 1930 until his retirement in 1962. Her treatment of the man, his times, and the world that arose around and through him is part cultural history, part kaleidoscopic meditation. From the Pharmacopeia of 1820 to death of Sandra Bland in 2015, from the Pennsylvania Railroad to the last passenger pigeon, and with forays into gangster lives, CIA operatives, and popular detective stories, Chasin covers impressive ground.

This event is free and open to the public.