Library:The Cigarette Century
| The Cigarette Century | |
|---|---|
| Author | Allan M. Brandt |
| First published | 2007 |
| ISBN | 978-0-465-07047-3 |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Health & Medicine Business, Finance & Scams History |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
The Cigarette Century is a 2007 book by Allan M. Brandt.
Summary
Allan M. Brandt, a historian of medicine and science at Harvard, published this comprehensive history of the cigarette in America in 2007. It traces how a product that was once a minor curiosity became a mass habit, how science established its lethal effects and how the industry worked for decades to deny what it knew.
The rise
Brandt shows how the cigarette became central to American life in the early twentieth century. Machine production made cigarettes cheap, the First World War spread the habit among soldiers and modern advertising and public relations, including campaigns by Edward Bernays, made smoking appealing to new markets, especially women. By mid-century, smoking was everywhere.
The science
Brandt traces how researchers established the link between smoking and lung cancer. Landmark studies in 1950 in both the United States and Britain showed a strong association, and evidence accumulated rapidly. The book explains how this research helped transform medical science itself, establishing the methods for proving causation from population data.
The industry's response
The book's central story is how the tobacco industry responded. In December 1953, the heads of the major tobacco companies met in New York and, with the help of the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton, decided on a strategy. In January 1954 they published "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers" in newspapers across the country, promising to support research while asserting that there was no proof smoking caused disease. The industry funded research designed to emphasize uncertainty and to divert attention from the evidence, while its own internal documents showed it understood the dangers.
The reckoning
Brandt describes how the 1964 US Surgeon General's report marked a turning point, followed by decades of regulation and litigation. The release of internal industry documents exposed what the companies had known. Brandt himself served as an expert witness in litigation against the industry, including the federal government's case, in which a judge ruled in 2006 that the companies had deceived the public.
The global turn
The book ends by showing how, as smoking declined in the United States, the industry expanded into markets abroad, where smoking-related deaths continue to rise.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
This is the definitive history of the case that taught later industries how to manufacture doubt. It anchors the Health & Medicine domain and connects to Merchants of Doubt and Doubt Is Their Product.