Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in The American Black
In this book, Eric Schlosser examines three unrelated aspects of the vast black market. The book states many facts surrounded with even more opinions. However, facts are backed up with the required research. Reefer Madness could have been three books, since all the last two essays seems rushed and thrown together with only one related theme, the black market. The first essay, ‘Reefer Madness’, successfully covers the laws, attitudes, and people that are involved with marijuana. The second essay, “In the Strawberry Fields”, briefly investigates the lives of migrant workers and their employers. The final essay, “An Empire of the Obscene”, follows the porn industry through the career …show more content…
The content is well written and interesting, but very disappointing since the main objective of the section was not discussed. No evidence was presented to support a black market outside of Sturman. Majority of the information is exclusively related to Sturman even though, other relevant figure was a live at that time. Some of these figures were briefly mentioned in a serious of name drops with a very limited information about them. There is no chorological organization of any of the stories. The section spent too much time examining Sturman and buries his story within other stories of his associate and legal content. Even the man who is ultimately responsible for Sturman demise receives a few pages. This section is also extremely biased, depicting the image that mostly criminals or immoral people are involved in this business. There are many aspects of porn that is legal, but they are only briefly mentioned. Porn is not as repressed now as it was in Sturman’s lifetime. A better examination would have involved an in-depth look at recent porn figures and the rise of internet porn, which is only briefly mentioned as taking funds from individuals who still own business that are not on the web. A discussion could have been done on the people who make porn websites, virtual girls or the attitudes changes surrounding it. The author does not inform us on what should be in the …show more content…
The first section involved a detailed law discussion with the opinions of people involved in the system added in. Despite the fact that the first section is not that organized, it presents the strongest and most researched argument. The second section address the issues between migrant workers and employees, but not from a global nor perspectives from both countries, Mexico and USA. A global perspective would be required in order to explain the black market. The author proposes things that would make the market better for Americans, but not the migrant workers who were the main focus. Part three is a history lesson that involves the rise of the porn industry because a man decided to sell ‘obscene’ marinizes and tax evasion. No discussion was made about legal porn and taxes, nor the distinction between the legal aspect of porn and the black market. These is no discussion about the positive and/or negative relationship between the legal and illegal porn industries. The last parts of the book only discuss the updated information on the topics and offer no explanation of how they are related. Future directions could investigate legalization of marijuana; more types of migrant work and debt bondage; and the relationship between internet and porn. Overall, the book was worth the read
In this book, Eric Schlosser examines three unrelated aspects of the vast black market. The book states many facts surrounded with even more opinions. However, facts are backed up with the required research. Reefer Madness could have been three books, since all the last two essays seems rushed and thrown together with only one related theme, the black market. The first essay, ‘Reefer Madness’, successfully covers the laws, attitudes, and people that are involved with marijuana. The second essay, “In the Strawberry Fields”, briefly investigates the lives of migrant workers and their employers. The final essay, “An Empire of the Obscene”, follows the porn industry through the career …show more content…
The content is well written and interesting, but very disappointing since the main objective of the section was not discussed. No evidence was presented to support a black market outside of Sturman. Majority of the information is exclusively related to Sturman even though, other relevant figure was a live at that time. Some of these figures were briefly mentioned in a serious of name drops with a very limited information about them. There is no chorological organization of any of the stories. The section spent too much time examining Sturman and buries his story within other stories of his associate and legal content. Even the man who is ultimately responsible for Sturman demise receives a few pages. This section is also extremely biased, depicting the image that mostly criminals or immoral people are involved in this business. There are many aspects of porn that is legal, but they are only briefly mentioned. Porn is not as repressed now as it was in Sturman’s lifetime. A better examination would have involved an in-depth look at recent porn figures and the rise of internet porn, which is only briefly mentioned as taking funds from individuals who still own business that are not on the web. A discussion could have been done on the people who make porn websites, virtual girls or the attitudes changes surrounding it. The author does not inform us on what should be in the …show more content…
The first section involved a detailed law discussion with the opinions of people involved in the system added in. Despite the fact that the first section is not that organized, it presents the strongest and most researched argument. The second section address the issues between migrant workers and employees, but not from a global nor perspectives from both countries, Mexico and USA. A global perspective would be required in order to explain the black market. The author proposes things that would make the market better for Americans, but not the migrant workers who were the main focus. Part three is a history lesson that involves the rise of the porn industry because a man decided to sell ‘obscene’ marinizes and tax evasion. No discussion was made about legal porn and taxes, nor the distinction between the legal aspect of porn and the black market. These is no discussion about the positive and/or negative relationship between the legal and illegal porn industries. The last parts of the book only discuss the updated information on the topics and offer no explanation of how they are related. Future directions could investigate legalization of marijuana; more types of migrant work and debt bondage; and the relationship between internet and porn. Overall, the book was worth the read