The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco - Hardcover

Burns, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592134807 ISBN 13: 9781592134809

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2006

Synopsis

Fox News Watch host Eric Burns, who chronicled the social history of alcohol in "The Spirits of America "turns to tobacco in "The Smoke of the Gods." Ranging from ancient times to the present day, "The Smoke of the Gods" is a lively history of tobacco, especially in the United States. Although tobacco use is controversial in the U.S. today, Burns reminds us that this was not always the case. For centuries tobacco was generally thought to have medicinal and even spiritual value. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were tobacco users or growers, or both. According to Burns, tobacco changed the very course of U.S. history, because its discovery caused the British to support Jamestown, its struggling New World colony. An entertaining and informative look at a subject that makes daily news headlines, "The Smoke of the Gods" is a history that is, well, quite addictive.

About this title

About the Author:

Eric Burns is the host of "Fox News Watch" on the Fox News Channel. He was named by the Washington Journalism Review as one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism. His other books include The Spirits of America: A Social History of Alcohol (Temple), Broadcast Blues, The Joy of Books, and Infamous Scribblers.

From Publishers Weekly:

For the ancient Mayans, Burns says, smoking was prayer, but when Rodrigo de Xerez, a crewmate of Columbus, returned to Spain, the Inquisitors saw what they assumed was the devil's fire spiraling from his nose and mouth—they confiscated de Xerez's land and jailed him. The weed fared better in England: Sir Walter Raleigh taught Queen Elizabeth to light up, and folks thought tobacco could protect them from the plague. In a genial social history that backhandedly glorifies this "first successful American export" while tracing its "mesmerizing" mystique, Burns (The Spirits of America: A Social History of Alcohol) demonstrates how the labor-intensive tobacco crop led to slavery, and how the YMCA withdrew its support from the Anti-Cigarette League and shipped millions of dollars' worth of cigarettes to GIs during WWI. Tobacco's detractors included Russia's 17th-century Czar Michael Feodorovich, who had third-time violators of his smoking ban beheaded, and Wayne McLaren, the famous face of the Marlboro man in print ads and on billboards who became a passionate antismoking advocate before his death at 51 from lung cancer. Burns is an able writer and researcher, but given the controversial nature of his topic, one would have hoped for more edge and attitude from the Fox News anchor. (Sept.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1592134807
• ISBN 13: 9781592134809
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296