The Cigarette Century

From agriculture to big business, from medicine to politics, The Cigarette Century is the definitive account of how smoking came to be so deeply implicated in our culture, science, policy, and law. No product has been so heavily promoted or has become so deeply entrenched in American consciousness. The Cigarette Century shows in striking detail how one ephemeral (and largely useless) product came to play such a dominant role in so many aspects of our lives—and deaths.

The story of tobacco’s fortunes seems simple: science triumphed over addiction and profit. Yet the reality is more complicated—and more political. Historically it was not just bad habits but also the state that lifted the tobacco industry. What brought about change was not medical advice but organized pressure: a movement for nonsmoker’s rights.

The cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of human civilization. It is also one of the most beguiling, thanks to more than a century of manipulation at the hands of tobacco industry chemists. In Golden Holocaust, Robert N. Proctor draws on reams of formerly-secret industry documents to explore how the cigarette came to be the most widely-used drug on the planet, with six trillion sticks sold per year. He paints a harrowing picture of tobacco manufacturers conspiring to block the recognition of tobacco-cancer hazards, even as they ensnare legions of scientists and politicians in a web of denial. Proctor tells heretofore untold stories of fraud and subterfuge, and he makes the strongest case to date for a simple yet ambitious remedy: a ban on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • No book before this one has rendered the story of cigarettes—mankind's most common self-destructive instrument and its most profitable consumer product—with such sweep and enlivening detail. "A great battleship of a book—formidable, majestic.”—The New York Times Book Review Here for the first time, in a story full of the complexities and contradictions of human nature, all the strands of the historical process—financial, social, psychological, medical, political, and legal—are woven together in a riveting narrative. The key characters are the top corporate executives, public health investigators, and antismoking activists who have clashed ever more stridently as Americans debate whether smoking should be closely regulated as a major health menace. We see tobacco spread rapidly from its aboriginal sources in the New World 500 years ago, as it becomes increasingly viewed by some as sinful and some as alluring, and by government as a windfall source of tax revenue. With the arrival of the cigarette in the late-nineteenth century, smoking changes from a luxury and occasional pastime to an everyday—to some, indispensable—habit, aided markedly by the exuberance of the tobacco huskers. This free-enterprise success saga grows shadowed, from the middle of this century, as science begins to understand the cigarette's toxicity. Ironically the more detailed and persuasive the findings by medical investigators, the more cigarette makers prosper by seeming to modify their product with filters and reduced dosages of tar and nicotine. We see the tobacco manufacturers come under intensifying assault as a rogue industry for knowingly and callously plying their hazardous wares while insisting that the health charges against them (a) remain unproven, and (b) are universally understood, so smokers indulge at their own risk. Among the eye-opening disclosures here: outrageous pseudo-scientific claims made for cigarettes throughout the '30s and '40s, and the story of how the tobacco industry and the National Cancer Institute spent millions to develop a "safer" cigarette that was never brought to market. Dealing with an emotional subject that has generated more heat than light, this book is a dispassionate tour de force that examines the nature of the companies' culpability, the complicity of society as a whole, and the shaky moral ground claimed by smokers who are now demanding recompense.

From A is for Aardvark—“We’re not allowed to tell you anything about Winston cigarettes, so here’s a stuffed aardvark”—to Z is for Zippo, the iconic American lighter, The Cigarette Book is the ultimate souvenir and celebration of the dying art of smoking. Encyclopedic in both layout and range, this is an ideal consolation gift for those who have stopped, an ideal aide de memoire for those who might, and a defiant puff of libertarian brilliance for those who won’t. Celebrate the Hollywood age of smoking when film stars lit up with glamorous abandon. Witty, illustrated, collectible, and up-to-date. "… All smokers know that cigarettes are dangerous. Each one is a dance with death—and the defiant smoker will say that therein lies its charm. So each puff is an existential gesture, an assertion of choice and life in the face of death." One day the last cigarette on earth will be smoked. One final puff will be sent heaven-bound, leaving a lingering, evanescent smoke ring. And the wise of this world will rejoice. Because logic demands that mankind is rid of this pernicious poison. And wasn’t that well-known logician Adolf Hitler the most virulent opponent of cigarette smoking in the last century? Until then, read this book.

This completely revised and enlarged 2nd edition of The Tobacco Epidemic provides a comprehensive update of the clinical, public health and political aspects of tobacco smoking. Since its 1st edition in 1997, knowledge on the health hazards of tobacco and nicotine addiction has increased considerably, but recent data has shown that the global problem has become more aggravated in low- and middle-income countries: if current trends continue, tobacco smoking will be responsible for the deaths of 1 billion people in the 21st century. Written by outstanding international experts, the book covers the history of tobacco production and use, the economics of tobacco use and control, as well as the health consequences of active and passive smoking in both adults and children. Special chapters discuss the impact of media, movies and TV on tobacco consumption in young people, the patterns and predictors of smoking cessation in the general population and in different social subgroups, and initiatives supported by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Readers will find the latest information on how nicotine dependence is treated with nicotine replacement products, what role health care professionals play in helping smokers to quit and what effects smoke-free environments, advertising bans and price increases have on smoking prevalence. The potential harms and benefits of smokeless tobacco, waterpipe tobacco smoking and electronic cigarettes are also evaluated. This book is a must-read for anyone in the medical profession who treats patients with smoking-related diseases and for those engaged in tobacco control. It will also be appreciated by interested nonmedical readers like journalists and legislators.

We live in an age when the cigarette industry is under almost constant attack. Few weeks pass without yet another report on the hazards of smoking, or news of another anti-cigarette lawsuit, or more restrictions on cigarette sales, advertising, or use. It's somewhat surprising, then, that very little attention has been given to the fact that America has traveled down this road before. Until now, that is. As Cassandra Tate reports in this fascinating work of historical scholarship, between 1890 and 1930, fifteen states enacted laws to ban the sale, manufacture, possession, and/or use of cigarettes--and no fewer than twenty-two other states considered such legislation. In presenting the history of America's first conflicts with Big Tobacco, Tate draws on a wide range of newspapers, magazines, trade publications, rare pamphlets, and many other manuscripts culled from archives across the country. Her thorough and meticulously researched volume is also attractively illustrated with numerous photographs, posters, and cartoons from this bygone era. Readers will find in Cigarette Wars an engagingly written and well-told tale of the first anti-cigarette movement, dating from the Victorian Age to the Great Depression, when cigarettes were both legally restricted and socially stigmatized in America. Progressive reformers and religious fundamentalists came together to curb smoking, but their efforts collapsed during World War I, when millions of soldiers took up the habit and cigarettes began to be associated with freedom, modernity, and sophistication. Importantly, Tate also illustrates how supporters of the early anti-cigarette movement articulated virtually every issue that is still being debated about smoking today; theirs was not a failure of determination, she argues in these pages, but of timing. A compelling narrative about several clashing American traditions--old vs. young, rural vs. urban, and the late nineteenth vs. early twentieth centuries--this work will appeal to all who are interested in America's love-hate relationship with what Henry Ford once called "the little white slaver."

'It is researched in great detail and well illustrated; the photos of the Indian and Chinese markets are fascinating' -Social History of Medicine'Of particular interest is the book's detailed study of the role of BAT in the Indian and Chinese markets in the early part of the twentieth century' -Social History of Medicine'Extremely well-researched, well-written, and sobering account... the book is excellent and will appeal to a wide audience' -Business History Review'Authoritative account... many interesting details... some splendid photographs' -Times Literary SupplementThe Global Cigarette provides the first authoritative account of The British American Tobacco Company's evolution and growth up until the Second World War. Based on archive materials from a wide variety of sources, including the company's own records, the book shows the way in which the company developed a vast array of international operating subsidiaries, explores how it managed these enterprises in different political and cultural contexts - notably in China and India - and analyses the way in which the company, as a mature multinational enterprise, coped with the severe international economic dislocations of the 1930s.