The spectacular increase in the use of psychiatric drugs over the past 50 years involved what a University at Buffalo historian calls “a massive break with what we consider ‘normal’ mental health,” one linked to myriad social and cultural changes in America. “Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac” (November 2008, Johns Hopkins University Press), a new book by David Herzberg, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of history, considers a wide range of psychiatric medications hailed in pharmaceutical marketing as “wonder drugs” and the social changes they provoked. Notably, he examines how we came to see “normalcy” in light of their mood-altering capabilities, and how we continue to respond to the barrage of drug advertising aimed directly at consumers.