Benjamin Breen (born 1985) is an American historian of science and medicine and an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz.^[1] His book The Age of Intoxication (2019) was awarded the 2021 William H. Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine.^[2]

His second book, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science,^[3] delves into the history of psychedelic science from the 1930s through the 1970s and has garnered critical acclaim. Publications such as The New Yorker,^[4] The New York Times,^[5] and Publishers Weekly^[6] have all provided favorable reviews. In addition, Breen's insights have reached a wider audience through his appearance on NPR's Fresh Air in an interview with Terry Gross.^[7]

Breen received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015.^[8] His doctoral advisor was Jorge Canizares-Esguerra.^[9]

Breen’s work centers on the history of globalization and the long-term impacts of technological and environmental change.^[1] He has written on early modern globalization;^[10] the Portuguese empire;^[11] Atlantic history;^[12] the early modern drug trade;^[13] the history of psychedelics;^[14] and the eighteenth-century impostor George Psalmanazar.^[10]

Between 2015 and 2017 Breen was a member of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University and a lecturer in Columbia's Department of History.^[15]

His writing has appeared in The Atlantic,^[16] The Paris Review,^[17] Aeon,^[18] The Public Domain Review,^[19] Lapham’s Quarterly,^[20] and Slate^[21] and been discussed in The New Yorker,^[22][23]The Washington Post,^[24] Radio New Zealand,^[25] and Le Point.^[26]

He was a co-founder and editor of The Appendix^[27] and writes the history blog Res Obscura and substack.^[28][29]

• 2021 The William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine^[2]
• 2021 National Endowment for the Humanities Award for Faculty.^[30]
• 2014-15 Huntington Library visiting fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.^[31]
• 2011-12 Fulbright Fellowship (Portugal).^[32]

• The Age of Intoxication: Origins of the Global Drug Trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019). LCCN 2019-32803 ISBN 978-0-8122-5178-4 hbk; Breen, Benjamin (20 December 2019). 2019 pbk edition. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-9662-4.
• Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science (Grand Central Publishing, 2024).^[33]