Drugs and Empires introduces new research that re-evaluates the relationship between intoxicants and empires in the modern world. It re-examines controversies about such issues as the Asian opium trade or the sale of alcohol in Africa and addresses new areas of research, including the impact of imperial drugs profits on American history.

Growing up poor, fatherless and unwanted in a small Canadian town in the 1950s, Patricia Barton had plenty be sorry about. Spitting out the host at her Holy Communion it seemed that she had even failed God. After years of abuse and neglect, Patricia ran away from home at the age of 13, searching for her father and a better life. Instead she finds herself in an orphanage, alone and abandoned again. Refusing to give up on her dreams, her persistence and passion for learning win her a scholarship. At 16, when released from the Home, she goes to live with her older sister in a tiny room. Life...