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Indlæser... Ashes to Ashes : America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Trium ph of Philip Morris (original 1996; udgave 1997)af Richard Kluger
Work InformationAshes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris af Richard Kluger (1996)
Penguin Random House (268) Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. nonfiction (history/business/politics/science). These rat bastards strike me as alarmingly similar to the businesses and industries who continue to claim global warming is not a real, proven thing, bribing Congress to loosen environmental sanctions so that they can continue to amass millions/billions in profits at the cost of public health and well-being. And for everyone's sake, I hope that marijuana is as safe as its users believe it to be (they really haven't done enough studies to know for sure at this point) so that we don't find ourselves in the same situation with THAT multi-billion-dollar industry 50 years from now (you know, in addition to all the climate problems). I would sigh now, but I think I'm too worried. ( ) Kluger has written an encyclopedia documenting nearly every mover-and-shaker in the history of Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds, as well as legions of anti-smoking activists trying to hold them accountable. The book starts in workmanlike prose, but gains momentum as Kluger examines the 1960s onward. Interesting details--the mechanization of cigarette rolling, the reasoning behind the classic ad jingles.... But you will feel frustration as you learn of the industry's slippery lies and their seeming immunity to all consequences. 3246. Ashes to Ashes America's Hundred Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, by Richard Kluger (read 29 Sept 1999). This won the 1997 General Non-fiction Pulitzer prize, and since I am sort of "doing" those I decided to read it, tho its subject had no special interest for me. It is well-constructed, with workmanlike Wall Street Journal-like prose. The book is never dull and highly informative, and made me marvel anew that so many would let their health be affected by a weed. I thought this well worthwhile reading . ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
HæderspriserDistinctions
No book before this one has rendered the story of cigarettes -- mankind's most common self-destructive instrument and its most profitable consumer product -- with such sweep and enlivening detail. Here for the first time, in a story full of the complexities and contradictions of human nature, all the strands of the historical process -- financial, social, psychological, medical, political, and legal -- are woven together in a riveting narrative. The key characters are the top corporate executives, public health investigators, and antismoking activists who have clashed ever more stridently as Americans debate whether smoking should be closely regulated as a major health menace. We see tobacco spread rapidly from its aboriginal sources in the New World 500 years ago, as it becomes increasingly viewed by some as sinful and some as alluring, and by government as a windfall source of tax revenue. With the arrival of the cigarette in the late-nineteenth century, smoking changes from a luxury and occasional pastime to an everyday -- to some, indispensable -- habit, aided markedly by the exuberance of the tobacco huskers. This free-enterprise success saga grows shadowed, from the middle of this century, as science begins to understand the cigarette's toxicity. Ironically the more detailed and persuasive the findings by medical investigators, the more cigarette makers prosper by seeming to modify their product with filters and reduced dosages of tar and nicotine. We see the tobacco manufacturers come under intensifying assault as a rogue industry for knowingly and callously plying their hazardous wares while insisting that the health charges against them (a) remain unproven, and (b) are universally understood, so smokers indulge at their own risk. Among the eye-opening disclosures here: outrageous pseudo-scientific claims made for cigarettes throughout the '30s and '40s, and the story of how the tobacco industry and the National Cancer Institute spent millions to develop a "safer" cigarette that was never brought to market. Dealing with an emotional subject that has generated more heat than light, this book is a dispassionate tour de force that examines the nature of the companies' culpability, the complicity of society as a whole, and the shaky moral ground claimed by smokers who are now demanding recompense No library descriptions found. |
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