The cigarette century the rise, fall, and deadly persistence of the product that defined America

Summary: 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.--Publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 9780786727537 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 0786727535 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 0465070485 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 9780465070480 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 9780786721900 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 0786721901 (electronic bk.)
Physical Description: electronic resource
remote
1 online resource (vii, 600, [32] p.) : ill.
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, c2007.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Leisurereading.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 507-578) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: the Camel Man and me -- Culture -- Pro bono publico -- Tobacco as much as bullets -- Engineering consent -- Science -- More doctors smoke Camels -- The causal conundrum -- Constructing controversy -- Politics -- The surgeon general has determined -- Congress : the best filter yet -- Your cigarette is killing me -- Law -- Nicotine is the product -- Mr. Butts goes to Washington -- The trials of big tobacco -- Globalization -- Exporting an epidemic -- Epilogue: the crime of the century -- References -- Note on sources -- Acknowledgements -- Index.
Source of Description Note:	Description based on print version record.