The Cigarette, Sarah Milov
The Cigarette, Sarah Milov
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The Cigarette
A Political History

Author: Sarah Milov

Narrator: Janet Metzger

Unabridged: 14 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/19/2019


Synopsis

Tobacco is the quintessential American product. From Jamestown to the Marlboro Man, the plant occupied the heart of the nation's economy and expressed its enduring myths. But today smoking rates have declined and smokers are exiled from many public spaces. The story of tobacco's fortunes may seem straightforward: science triumphed over our addictive habits and the cynical machinations of tobacco executives. Yet the reality is more complicated. Both the cigarette's popularity and its eventual decline reflect a parallel course of shifting political priorities. The tobacco industry flourished with the help of the state, but it was the concerted efforts of citizen nonsmokers who organized to fight for their right to clean air that led to its undoing.

After the Great Depression, public officials and organized tobacco farmers worked together to ensure that the government's regulatory muscle was more often deployed to promote tobacco than to protect the public from its harms. Even as evidence of the cigarette's connection to cancer grew, medical experts could not convince officials to change their stance. What turned the tide, Sarah Milov argues, was a new kind of politics: a movement for nonsmokers' rights.


About Sarah Milov

Sarah Milov is assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia. A former fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, she has written on the tobacco industry, the rise of e-cigarettes, and the grassroots fight to battle climate change. Her research explores how organized interest groups and everyday Americans influence government policy.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Daniel

An excellent social, legal, regulatory, and political history of cigarette smoking, with a focus on the significance of the "non-smoker" as a discrete constituent and political actor. Very well done -- both tightly written and deeply researched.......more

Goodreads review by Lisa

I thought the first half of this book was really interesting but the second half seemed to be written by my most annoying sister. Please don’t tell her about “the civil rights movement for non smokers” family holidays are annoying enough already!!! How did a book with such a beautiful cover turn into......more

Goodreads review by Russell

Milov tackles an interesting topic, the 20th century development of tobacco price supports by the US government, in this academic book. Even though I was able to slog my way through it, I can't really recommend the writing style (or prooofreading) as an example of a page-turner. Milov makes her poin......more

At a talk I went to by Henry Waxman over a decade ago in DC, he highlighted that cigarettes are the only legal product in the US that--used as intended--lead to sickness and death. And yet they've managed to have quite a prominent role in our culture for so long. Typically, that role is attributed t......more