A fascinating and intricately woven tale of opium trade, evangelism, scientific discovery and political intrigue, Anglo-European Science and the Rhetoric of Empire: Malaria, Opium and British Rule in India 1756-1895 documents the contribution of a medical misconception to the preservation of British Rule in India. British authorities, desperate to shield the India-China Opium Trade from the escalating criticism of Christian evangelists and missionaries, endorsed the claim that opium prevented and cured malaria. This scientific validation of a vital source of revenue helped decimate the anti-opiumist movement, allowing the Indian government to vastly expand poppy cultivation in the name of both economic prosperity and public health. In this thoroughly researched and immensely readable history, author Paul Winther provides a revealing look at the complex and often unexpected negotiations that enable scientific authority to legitimize political and economic gain.

"In the recent historiography of British imperialism few topics have enjoyed as much renewed interest among scholars as have science, medicine, and missionary evangelism. In this book, Paul C. Winther has provided a meticulously researched study of how all these aspects converged in one of the more controversial episodes of British rule in India: the state-sanctioned production and marketing of opium to Indian and Chinese consumers." - Canadian Journal of History

"Highly recommended." - CHOICE

"Paul Winther's book is an especially significant contribution to a widening debate and is particularly timely given recent developments in the historiography. All the volumes of the Royal Opium Commission of 1893-4, were recently republished with an introduction by Joyce Madancy and as such those keen to engage with this remarkable set of sources will find in Winther's book an important addition to the analytical tools available." - Intenerario 2G:1, (2005)

"Paul C. Winther provides a rigorous analysis that supports the claim of Carl Trocki that the British empire in Asia was a drug cartel. As the author writes in his introduction, books are still to be written about many particular aspects of the Secret History. Certainly his present magnum opus, in which he successfully incorporates all achievements of previous investigations and the fruits of his own research, will be a great source of inspiration for the generation of scholars to come." - Journal of Asian Studies