The Age of Intoxication: Origins of the Global Drug Trade

Abstract

pretensions in the Pacific by extending the empire of “commerce and science” by conducting a hydrographic survey by the US Navy, demonstrates that imperial mapping did not take part only on the land but also on the sea. Sponsored by the U.S. Navy, the expedition marked the emergence of the United States as a Pacific power. However, the achievements of the four-year -long expedition, which was of major importance for the growth of the young scientific field of oceanography, have been overshadowed by an incident that ended in court martial. The armed conflict between the Pacific islanders and the expedition led to a trial of the officers in charge of the survey for their misconduct in pursuit of their cartographic duties. The closing chapter of the book is “The Cartography of the Forth Estate: Mapping the New Imperialism in British and French Newspapers, 1875–1925,” by Michael Hefferan. Described by Thomas Carlyle, the fourth estate refers to a different kind of state, which encompasses free and skeptical press operating beyond the control of government. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the largely textual world of journalism gradually diversified into a more complex mixture of words and images, among which newspaper maps played a special role. Intended for a wide readership, the maps published in the newspapers had a strong impact on a wide circle of people, influencing public opinion on the imperial affairs, most notably on those related to the warfare. Using the examples of British and French journalistic cartography, Hefferan presents how the British and French empires advocated their imperial interests in maps that appeared in the press and which role they had in forming the public discourse and ensuring public support to colonial policy. In conclusion, this is valuable book that provides comprehensive insight into the history of imperial cartography and all its complexity. The Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr., Lectures in the History of Cartography books once again proved to be indispensable for map experts worldwide. Although each volume came out with a significant time lag since the conference (in this case, five years), we hope that the production of this series will continue with the same zeal and perhaps at a somewhat faster pace.