The cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of human civilization. It is also one of the most beguiling, thanks to more than a century of manipulation at the hands of tobacco industry chemists. In Golden Holocaust, Robert N. Proctor draws on reams of formerly-secret industry documents to explore how the cigarette came to be the most widely-used drug on the planet, with six trillion sticks sold per year. He paints a harrowing picture of tobacco manufacturers conspiring to block the recognition of tobacco-cancer hazards, even as they ensnare legions of scientists and politicians in a web of denial. Proctor tells heretofore untold stories of fraud and subterfuge, and he makes the strongest case to date for a simple yet ambitious remedy: a ban on the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.

Every day, at least 1,191 Americans die before their time. They die painful, lingering deaths that could have been prevented. Every three days, as many citizens die from their own smoking habit, or from exposure to second-hand smoke, as died in the Sept 11 tragedy. Each and every pack of cigarettes costs American taxpayers $40 in higher medical premiums, unavailability of health services, and other hidden financial drains. And every year, 925 out of every 1,000 smokers who try to quit on their own fail to stay smoke-free for a year-while hundreds of thousands of children become addicted to nicotine. Dr. Michael Rabinoff, a respected psychiatrist who holds two patents and has published repeatedly in the New England Journal of Medicine and other top-flight journals, shows the health and financial suicide we commit by allowing tobacco companies to continue doing business as usual-and, like any good doctor, provides a detailed prescription for what to do about it: simple actions you can take to save the lives of millions around the world.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST By turns philosophical and darkly comic, an ex-smoker’s meditation on the nature and consequences of his nearly lifelong addiction. Written with the passion of an obsessive, Nicotine addresses a lifelong addiction, from the thrill of the first drag to the perennial last last cigarette. Reflecting on his experiences as a smoker from a young age, Gregor Hens investigates the irreversible effects of nicotine on thought and patterns of behavior. He extends the conversation with other smokers to meditations on Mark Twain and Italo Svevo, the nature of habit, and the validity of hypnosis. With comic insight and meticulous precision, Hens deconstructs every facet of dependency, offering a brilliant analysis of the psychopathology of addiction. This is a book about the physical, emotional, and psychological power of nicotine as not only an addictive drug, but also a gateway to memory, a long trail of streetlights in the rearview mirror of a smoker’s life. Cigarettes are sometimes a solace, sometimes a weakness, but always a witness and companion. This is a meditation, an ode, and a eulogy, one that will be passed hand-to-hand between close friends.

Praise for the previous edition:

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prize Winner of the PROSE Award in United States History Hagley Prize in Business History Finalist A Smithsonian Best History Book of the Year “Vaping gets all the attention now, but Milov’s thorough study reminds us that smoking has always intersected with the government, for better or worse.” —New York Times Book Review From Jamestown to the Marlboro Man, tobacco has powered America’s economy and shaped some of its most enduring myths. The story of tobacco’s rise and fall may seem simple enough—a tale of science triumphing over corporate greed—but the truth is more complicated. After the Great Depression, government officials and tobacco farmers worked hand in hand to ensure that regulation was used to promote tobacco rather than protect consumers. As evidence of the connection between cigarettes and cancer grew, scientists struggled to secure federal regulation in the name of public health. What turned the tide, Sarah Milov reveals, was a new kind of politics: a movement for nonsmokers’ rights. Activists took to the courts, the streets, city councils, and boardrooms to argue for smoke-free workplaces and allied with scientists to lobby elected officials. The Cigarette puts politics back at the heart of tobacco’s rise and fall, dramatizing the battles over corporate influence, individual choice, government regulation, and science. “A nuanced and ultimately devastating indictment of government complicity with the worst excesses of American capitalism.” —New Republic “An impressive work of scholarship evincing years of spadework...A well-told story.” —Wall Street Journal “If you want to know what the smoke-filled rooms of midcentury America were really like, this is the book to read.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

"Tells the behind-the-scenes story of the Department of Justice's landmark Racketeer Corrupt Influenced Organizations (RICO) Act lawsuit against the tobacco industry. This book illustrates the realities of bringing the largest public health case against a major industry, that ended with the major tobacco companies being identified as racketeers and placed under ongoing oversight by a federal court. The authors are Sharon Y. Eubanks who was lead attorney for DOJ and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD a Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and has been a leading researcher and activist in the nonsmokers' rights movement since 1978"--Unedited summary from book cover.