Poison: A Social History by Joel Levy( used)

From Greek philosophers to former Russian spies, the use of poison as a means of ending a life – whether through assassination, murder, suicide or execution – has a history stretching back over 2 000 years. Even before Socrates accepted his fate by drinking hemlock, countless people must have died as a result of ingesting naturally occurring poisons. And yet poisonous materials often also have beneficial properties: hydrogen flouride, for example, is highly toxic to humans, but is also a vital component in the production of herbicides, pharmaceuticals and fluorescent light bulbs. Poison: a social history explores the nature of toxicity and reveals how poison has played a crucial and often unheralded role – for good and for bad – in human history. As well as examining a range of poisonous materials, it also contains case studies of famous, and infamous, poisonings.