[.ca] Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant ... (ISBN 0802139604)

From Amazon.com:
Iain Gately's Tobacco is a sweeping cultural history of the world's most prevalent addiction, and it's probably the best book ever written on its subject. Gately begins in pre-Columbian America, where the natives made tobacco "their most popular gift to the rest of humanity," and continues through all the cantankerous smoking litigation of the 1990s. The story touches on just about every subject imaginable: tobacco in literature, the movies, and society. It would be wrong to call Gately an advocate of smoking, but he clearly takes pleasure, for example, in noting that Hitler's Nazis launched one of history's most vigorous anti-smoking initiatives. The book is full of delicious trivia: Many of Shakespeare's contemporaries smoked, but there's no evidence that the Bard himself did, and none of his plays make any mention of smoking; he "kept his writing a smoke-free zone." Nevertheless, reports Gately with a smirk, there is "archaeological evidence proving that smoking was going on around the Shakespeare household in Stratford-upon-Avon during his life." Smoking aficionados won't want to miss Tobacco, and it's a much healthier gift for them than a box of cigars. --John Miller

Not just for smoking:
Gately's history of tobacco's effect on humanity is an off-beat but well-written look at a plant that has generated a good share of controversy over the years. While more entertaining and better organized than the similarly-themed book Salt by Mark Kurlansky, Gately's knowledge of history beyond that of tobacco is sometimes deficient and he often comes off as an apologist for the tobacco industry. Gately starts at the beginning, with the Indians who discovered tobacco and consumed it in a number of fashions. When Europeans were introduced, they quickly became addicted and tobacco became one of the most valuable crops around. Although Gately goes all the way to the present day and the decline of tobacco (at least in the U.S.), and he does discuss some of the health problems related to smoking, there is a sense he is downplaying the dangers of the substance and the industry's complicity in avoiding reform. Despite his biases, Gately does present most of the facts and even if you don't agree with his views, he is still a good writer and he covers this topic with a brisk and often humorous style. This is a good read for those interested in history from the point-of-view of a substance instead a person or a nation.

Interesting, within limits:
Tobacco is an entertaining, nonscholarly look at the role tobacco has played in shaping our civilization over the last five hundred years or so. Gately provides plenty of fascinating information about the importance of tobacco to the Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans in Europe and in North America and does so with a witty, light touch and an ear for a good story, such as how the Hottentots became monotesticular. The first sections of the book deal with tobacco's spread from the Americas to the rest of the world and its impact on different societies. Towards the end Gately primarily concentrates on tobacco's history in the US and Britain. Gately is British and apparently doesn't have too firm a grasp on American history, because he makes some errors and oversimplifications from time to time that will jump out at US readers, but that's only a minor distraction. While I could have wished for more discussion of the reasons for the increasing number of smokers in Asia and the Third World, I did enjoy Gately's comparisons of the anti-smoking campaigns in Britain and the US during the 1960s and the 1970s. All in all an interesting look at a plant which shaped our society for both good and ill.

Fun but Puzzling:
About half-way through this book, I started saying, "Nah, that can't be true." Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but I couldn't shake the feeling. At first, Gately's Tobacco is simply a history, objectively told with an amusing tone. The prose is fast-paced, well-researched and, as far as it goes, honest. Despite Gately's well-reasoned and informative arguments, I have my doubts about the extent of tobacco's influence on historical/political situations, but then, it's difficult to know how seriously Gately takes such arguments himself. But Gately's emphasis of tobacco's role in civilization (Western civilization particularly) gains a certain edginess the closer the book gets to the modern age. Gately is quite honest about the medical/addictive aspect of tobacco smoke. His defense of tobacco rests mostly on the intelligent and defendable grounds of libertarianism. But there is still something unsettling about such a defense in the face of Gately's honest description of the tobacco companies' approach to teen smokers. Although he isn't defending the tobacco companies, the reader almost begins to wish he would. Gately's c'est la vie shrug of the shoulders seems a tad Machiavellian, even by libertarian standards. The trouble seems to be that Gately is too honest for his own good. A less honest man would defend tobacco without reference to the unsavory elements of its history and nature. Gately begins on an engagingly cavalier "Boy, isn't tobacco interesting" note but ends on a panegyric which comes off as a trifle naive in the face of what Gately himself has written. I don't question Gately's right to smoke or even the implication that anti-smoking has become something of an emotional crusade with science being used as a bludgeoning tool, but Gately's own Tobacco: A Cultural History simply doesn't lend itself to a rah, rah approach in favor of the weed. Recommendation: Despite the three stars, give it try. The history is fascinating.

Excellent Book From Many Perspectives:
Mostly historic, this book is excellent from many perspectives. The history of Tobacco is discussed from it's origins in Central America, all the way to the production of cigarettes in modern times with facinating bits of well written history at every page. Although written well enough to be scholarly, it's very easy to read and fun to learn from. I enjoy cigars, and of my tobacco smoking friends who have shared this book, they all read it cover to cover as well.

A very engaging narrative:
As someone interested in the history of tobacco and cigarettes who has read a few tomes on these subjects, I can say that this one, while not as in-depth as some, certainly covers it all. This is a very engaging read and worth the paltry price for anyone interested in the subject. The information on tobacco chewing in the US in the 1800's is wonderful. The bibliography is also very good, as well as the appendix on tobacco cultivation, curing and manufacturing. This is definitely the kind of book you want to reread and refer to at regular intervals. Cheap at twice the price.