Patrick K. O'Brien – författare

Drugs and the American Dream presents an up-to-date anthology of chiefly contemporary readings that explore the myriad sociological correlates of licit and illicit drug use in the United States. Unique approach to the topic that offers an organizing theme of sociological concepts-age, social class, ethnicity, gender, as well as societal response to drug use including drug education, treatment, and policy.The book is interdisciplinary in terms of approach, making it useful in a variety of contexts.Includes a wide array of ethnographic articles that place reader directly into the perspectives of drug users through their own voicesBrief framing introductions to each article provide "interconnective tissue," guiding the student to the heart of what's important in the piece that follows.Offers a balanced approach to various substances-tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs.Provides students with a realistic perspective on the extent of substance use in American society as well as a critical appreciation of the real versus imagined harms associated with use of various substances.

From the Netherlands to the Ottoman Empire, to Japan and India, this groundbreaking volume confronts the complex and diverse problem of the formation of fiscal states in Eurasia between 1500 and 1914. This series of country case studies from leading economic historians reveals that distinctive features of the fiscal state appeared across the region at different moments in time as a result of multiple independent but often interacting stimuli such as internal competition over resources, European expansion, international trade, globalisation and war. The essays offer a comparative framework for re-examining the causes of economic development across this period and show, for instance, the central role that the more effective fiscal systems of Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries played in the divergence of east and west as well as the very different paths to modernisation taken across the world.