The story of the crack epidemic told through the eyes of an addict, a white small-time dealer, a less small-time black dealer, & former Mayor Schmoke of Baltimore. I really liked reading Lennie's, Elgin's, Shawn's, & Kurt's stories. I wish this book could have included more people's stories from more places. The biggest revelation to me was that Gary Webb's 1996 San Jose Mercury News report's claims about the CIA's ties to the crack trade had already been reported in 1989 by a Senate committee led by John Kerry (who went on to vote for Clinton's 1994 crime bill). The news media's role as uncritical stenographers for police & government authorities is a pattern we still see today. Implies that the same forces that brought us Reagan's America brought us crack. I kind of wish there had been some comparisons to the spread of meth. Overall this is a solid history of the era which cuts through the sensationalism that pervaded media coverage at the time.