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Tobacco is inseparable from the rise of the West to power and wealth. Many a battle, famous novel and tragic moment has been wreathed in tobacco smoke. The drug dulled the nerves of exhausted labourers and stimulated the brains of great writers. Kiernan charts the spread of tobacco, the ways it was consumed, its social symbolism and its long decline into an anti-social habit.
Why do people smoke? Taking a unique approach to this question, Jason Hughes moves beyond the usual focus on biological addiction that dominates news coverage and public health studies and invites us to reconsider how social and personal understandings of smoking crucially affect the way people experience it. Learning to Smoke examines the diverse sociological and cultural processes that have compelled people to smoke since the practice was first introduced to the West during the sixteenth century. Hughes traces the transformations of tobacco and its use over time, from its role as a hallucinogen in Native American shamanistic ritual to its use as a prophylactic against the plague and a cure...
Jordan Goodman explores the historical transformation of tobacco from Amerindian shamanism to global capitalism, from the food of the spirits to the fatal epidemic, from the rough pipe and cigar to the modern-day cigarette. This scholarly and comprehensive survey combines up-to-date published work with primary research to provide a systematic way of understanding current debates from a historical perspective. Goodman draws on a wide range of disciplines to present a history that explores larger themes, such as colonialism, consumerism, medical discourse and multinational enterprise. The book reveals the complex web of dependence and relationships surrounding this controversial commodity.
"Science tends to generalize, and generaliza tions mean simplifications . . . . And generaliza tions are also more satisfying to the mind than details. Of course, details and generalizations must be in proper balance: Generalizations can be reached only from details, while it is the generalization which gives value and interest to the detail:' . . . (A. Szent-Gyorgy, Science 1964) The first edition of this book, published in German as Tabak abhiingigkeit in 2001, was prompted by the fact that no single volume was available in Germany or elsewhere summarising the adverse repercussions of cigarette smoking on human health. As far as my own research was able to ascertain, the last comprehensive...
This report considers the biological and behavioral mechanisms that may underlie the pathogenicity of tobacco smoke. Many Surgeon General's reports have considered research findings on mechanisms in assessing the biological plausibility of associations observed in epidemiologic studies. Mechanisms of disease are important because they may provide plausibility, which is one of the guideline criteria for assessing evidence on causation. This report specifically reviews the evidence on the potential mechanisms by which smoking causes diseases and considers whether a mechanism is likely to be operative in the production of human disease by tobacco smoke. This evidence is relevant to understanding how smoking causes disease, to identifying those who may be particularly susceptible, and to assessing the potential risks of tobacco products.