The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America

Front Cover
Basic Books, Jan 6, 2009 - History - 640 pages
The invention of mass marketing led to cigarettes being emblazoned in advertising and film, deeply tied to modern notions of glamour and sex appeal. It is hard to find a photo of Humphrey Bogart or Lauren Bacall without a cigarette. No product has been so heavily promoted or has become so deeply entrenched in American consciousness. And no product has received such sustained scientific scrutiny. The development of new medical knowledge demonstrating the dire harms of smoking ultimately shaped the evolution of evidence-based medicine. In response, the tobacco industry engineered a campaign of scientific disinformation seeking to delay, disrupt, and suppress these studies. Using a massive archive of previously secret documents, historian Allan Brandt shows how the industry pioneered these campaigns, particularly using special interest lobbying and largesse to elude regulation. But even as the cultural dominance of the cigarette has waned and consumption has fallen dramatically in the U.S., Big Tobacco remains securely positioned to expand into new global markets. The implications for the future are vast: 100 million people died of smoking-related diseases in the 20th century; in the next 100 years, we expect 1 billion deaths worldwide.
 

Contents

The Camel Man and Me 1
1
I Culture
17
1 Pro Bono Publico 19
19
2 Tobacco as Much as Bullets 45
45
3 Engineering Consent 69
69
II Science
103
4 More Doctors Smoke Camels 105
105
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9 Your Cigarette Is Killing Me 279
279
IV Law
317
10 Nicotine Is the Product 319
319
11 Mr Butts Goes to Washington 357
357
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12 The Trials of Big Tobacco 401
401

5 The Causal Conundrum 131
131
6 Constructing Controversy 159
159
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III Politics
209
7 The Surgeon General Has Determined 211
211
The Best Filter Yet 241
241
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V Globalization
447
13 Exporting an Epidemic 449
449
The Crime of the Century 493
493
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507
Note on Sources 579
579
Acknowledgments 583
583
Index 585
585
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

Allan M. Brandt is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. His previous writings include the book No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 .

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