Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking Paperback – June 22, 2009
Author: Visit Amazon's Christopher Snowdon Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0956226507 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking – June 22, 2009
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Review
"DON'T forget the cigarettes for Tommy," ran one patriotic British ditty during the first world war. American generals told their government they needed "tobacco as much as bullets"; charities sent cigarettes to the front-line. After the war, non-smokers seemed odd. The crime writer, Agatha Christie, even apologised for not smoking. She had tried many times, she said, but just could not like it.
In this solidly researched, interesting and only occasionally strident book, Christopher Snowdon, an independent researcher, documents the cigarette's journey from patriotic necessity to pariah status. There had always been those who found smoking "loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs," as James I put it in 1604. Some despots, in Hindustan and Persia, went further, slitting smokers' lips or pouring molten lead down their throats. American prohibitionists claimed that smoking led to moral decay; Nazis that it was a decadent Jewish habit. But few non-bigots thought that their personal distaste warranted limiting the freedom of others. --The Economist, June 11 2009
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking Paperback – June 22, 2009
- Paperback: 415 pages
- Publisher: Little Dice (June 22, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0956226507
- ISBN-13: 978-0956226501
- Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The history of antismoking began when Columbus brought tobacco from America to Spain - and the Inquisition clapped some of his crew into irons for smoking. Fast forward to that great public health promoter, Adolf Hitler, who tried to make Germany and much the world smoke-free. Fortunately for us, he was defeated by the armies of Churchill and Roosevelt - one a cigar, the other a cigarette smoker.
Tyrannical prohibitionists are at work today. Here, in New York, we have an ex-smoker billionaire mayor forcing poor smokers to huddle in the rain in the doorways. Elsewhere, my daughter just returned from dirt-poor authoritarian Turkmenistan where it is illegal to smoke in the streets. The fine is $50, which is about a month's salary for locals, and police enforcement is harsh. Why? Because their president stopped smoking and did not want to see other smokers from the window of his limo.
Snowdon writes in a engaging, lively, and sophisticated style. He runs through the scientific evidence: the addictiveness but also the relative harmlessness of nicotine; the health hazards of tar in cigarettes; the ridiculous claims about `secondary smoke.'
The anti-smoking campaigners started out mild and reasonable. They told us to be compassionate to fellow office workers in enclosed spaces. Emboldened by their success, they drove an ever harder bargain. The velvet glove was off and the iron fist of criminalizing tobacco was out. Their campaigns are very well documented in this book.
As a life-long recreational cigar smoker - as well as a man who literally risked his life for freedom - I read this book from cover to cover. It was like nicotine, which paradoxically both relaxes and sharpens the mind.
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