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.
Golden Holocaust
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Draws on previously confidential industry documents and Proctor's own experience as the first historian to testify in court about [industry] lies. What lies? How deep into the pleural linings did they go? All the way."--Harper's Magazine
"Lays out in head-shaking detail how a handful of companies painstakingly designed, produced, and mass-marketed the most lethal product on the planet."--Mother Jones
"[A] monumental and sobering indictment."--Nature
"Proctor documents a breadth and depth of the industry's duplicitous actions that is astounding."--Science (Aaas)
"A nearly 800-page book that begins as the Bible of the twentieth-century cigarette industry only to end as its millennial counterblaste."--Harper's
From the Inside Flap
"The great cause of global health is in Robert Proctor's debt. Golden Holocaust is a model of impassioned scholarly research and advocacy. As Proctor so powerfully demonstrates, the time has come to hold the tobacco industry accountable for the massive disease, debility, and death that they produce around the world."--Allan M. Brandt, author of The Cigarette Century
"Robert Proctor unpacks the sad history of an industrial fraud. His tightly reasoned exploration touches on all topics on which the tobacco makers lied repeatedly to Congress and the public."--Don Kennedy, President Emeritus, Stanford University and former Editor, Science
"This book is a remarkable compendium of evil. It will keep you spinning from page one through the last with a detailed description of how one of the most notorious industries in American history deceived and manipulated the public, the politicians, and the scientific community into allowing an age-old toxin to be breathed directly into the lungs of millions of Americans. It is the type of book that makes you wonder how, in God's name, this could have happened?"-David Rosner, author of Deceit and Denial
"Proctor powerfully documents how a small number of tobacco companies caused a tragic, global epidemic. His account of this history and of the 'lessons learned' is relevant to the ongoing effort to end the tobacco epidemic and to efforts to control emerging pandemics of non-communicable diseases." --Jonathan M. Samet, M.D., M.S., Director, Institute for Global Health, University of Southern California
"Proctor weaves together the public historical record with inside details and insights from thousands of once secret industry documents. Anyone who cares about health, deception, science or politics will learn something new from this book."-Stanton A. Glantz, Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco, and author of The Cigarette Papers
"A powerful indictment of the world's deadliest industry"-John R. Seffrin, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society
"By carefully analyzing formerly secret industry documents, Proctor has shown how cigarette manufacturers knew that the "filters" on virtually all cigarettes sold today are utterly fraudulent. His call for a ban is likely to change how we think about such devices; this excellent book is a must read for tobacco control and environmental activists alike."--Thomas E. Novotny, MD MPH, Former US Assistant Surgeon General and CEO, Cigarette Butt Pollution Project.
"Scholarly yet eminently readable, indeed gripping, this book asks us to consider what the end game for tobacco might look like. A must-read for policy makers and public health officials, and for anyone struggling against the tobacco industry in the field."--Professor Judith Mackay, Senior Advisor, World Lung Foundation, Hong Kong, China SAR"
"The machine-rolled cigarette is the single most deadly consumer product ever made. Proctor's powerful, witty, and wide-ranging book shows how we came to accept as normal the promotion and use of products that have caused a global epidemic of disease and death. But more importantly, he outlines a way to end this grim chapter in human history."--Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, FAAN, Editor, Tobacco Control
"This is the most important book on smoking in fifty years. Proctor's unique mix of scholarship, readability, wit and political understanding tells a no-holds-barred story with conclusions that governments cannot afford to ignore. It will change the course of public health history."--Professor Mike Daube, President, Australian Council on Smoking and Health
"Proctor draws masterfully from a vast archive of documents wrested from the industry, including many never before discussed, and mounts an unforgettable case about what the tobacco industry has done and what we must do about it. This is the book to help us understand what we must do to save lives."--Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps
"Golden Holocaust will stand indelibly as a landmark in the field of medicine and the history of science. It is a monument of committed scholarship and cool passion, making brilliant use of the new technics of data-mining to reveal a terrible calculus, while giving the lie to claims that advocacy must be the enemy of objectivity. Lives, far too many lives, depend on what this book contains."--Iain Boal, Birkbeck College, London and Guggenheim Fellow in Science and Technology
"Robert Proctor draws an unvarnished conclusion: that the tobacco industry, and the men who led it, were evil, plain and simple. They knowingly sold a product that, when used as intended, killed people. And then they conspired to suppress the evidence. Not everyone will agree with Proctor, but anyone interested in the intertwined issues of science and health, and culture and commerce, needs to read this book."--Naomi Oreskes, coauthor of Merchants of Doubt
"Robert Proctor lays bare the deliberate choices made by the tobacco companies to addict their customers and cause premature death. Here is clarity to the unprecedented scientific fraud perpetrated by the tobacco industry."--William A. Farone, Ph.D. Chairman, Applied Power Concepts, Inc. (formerly Director of Scientific Research for Philip Morris USA, 1977-1984).
"Robert Proctor unpacks the sad history of an industrial fraud. His tightly reasoned exploration touches on all topics on which the tobacco makers lied repeatedly to Congress and the public."--Don Kennedy, President Emeritus, Stanford University and former Editor, Science
"This book is a remarkable compendium of evil. It will keep you spinning from page one through the last with a detailed description of how one of the most notorious industries in American history deceived and manipulated the public, the politicians, and the scientific community into allowing an age-old toxin to be breathed directly into the lungs of millions of Americans. It is the type of book that makes you wonder how, in God's name, this could have happened?"-David Rosner, author of Deceit and Denial
"Proctor powerfully documents how a small number of tobacco companies caused a tragic, global epidemic. His account of this history and of the 'lessons learned' is relevant to the ongoing effort to end the tobacco epidemic and to efforts to control emerging pandemics of non-communicable diseases." --Jonathan M. Samet, M.D., M.S., Director, Institute for Global Health, University of Southern California
"Proctor weaves together the public historical record with inside details and insights from thousands of once secret industry documents. Anyone who cares about health, deception, science or politics will learn something new from this book."-Stanton A. Glantz, Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco, and author of The Cigarette Papers
"A powerful indictment of the world's deadliest industry"-John R. Seffrin, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society
"By carefully analyzing formerly secret industry documents, Proctor has shown how cigarette manufacturers knew that the "filters" on virtually all cigarettes sold today are utterly fraudulent. His call for a ban is likely to change how we think about such devices; this excellent book is a must read for tobacco control and environmental activists alike."--Thomas E. Novotny, MD MPH, Former US Assistant Surgeon General and CEO, Cigarette Butt Pollution Project.
"Scholarly yet eminently readable, indeed gripping, this book asks us to consider what the end game for tobacco might look like. A must-read for policy makers and public health officials, and for anyone struggling against the tobacco industry in the field."--Professor Judith Mackay, Senior Advisor, World Lung Foundation, Hong Kong, China SAR"
"The machine-rolled cigarette is the single most deadly consumer product ever made. Proctor's powerful, witty, and wide-ranging book shows how we came to accept as normal the promotion and use of products that have caused a global epidemic of disease and death. But more importantly, he outlines a way to end this grim chapter in human history."--Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, FAAN, Editor, Tobacco Control
"This is the most important book on smoking in fifty years. Proctor's unique mix of scholarship, readability, wit and political understanding tells a no-holds-barred story with conclusions that governments cannot afford to ignore. It will change the course of public health history."--Professor Mike Daube, President, Australian Council on Smoking and Health
"Proctor draws masterfully from a vast archive of documents wrested from the industry, including many never before discussed, and mounts an unforgettable case about what the tobacco industry has done and what we must do about it. This is the book to help us understand what we must do to save lives."--Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps
"Golden Holocaust will stand indelibly as a landmark in the field of medicine and the history of science. It is a monument of committed scholarship and cool passion, making brilliant use of the new technics of data-mining to reveal a terrible calculus, while giving the lie to claims that advocacy must be the enemy of objectivity. Lives, far too many lives, depend on what this book contains."--Iain Boal, Birkbeck College, London and Guggenheim Fellow in Science and Technology
"Robert Proctor draws an unvarnished conclusion: that the tobacco industry, and the men who led it, were evil, plain and simple. They knowingly sold a product that, when used as intended, killed people. And then they conspired to suppress the evidence. Not everyone will agree with Proctor, but anyone interested in the intertwined issues of science and health, and culture and commerce, needs to read this book."--Naomi Oreskes, coauthor of Merchants of Doubt
"Robert Proctor lays bare the deliberate choices made by the tobacco companies to addict their customers and cause premature death. Here is clarity to the unprecedented scientific fraud perpetrated by the tobacco industry."--William A. Farone, Ph.D. Chairman, Applied Power Concepts, Inc. (formerly Director of Scientific Research for Philip Morris USA, 1977-1984).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful
By John Mashey
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read Allan Brandt's The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America, David Michaels'Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, Proctor's earlier Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know And Don't Know About Cancer and Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance, among others. I have also spent many dozens of hours rummaging in the UCSF tobacco archives.
Still, I am learning a great deal from this meticulously-documented book, which articulates the pervasive history of an industry that survives only by addicting children while their brains are developing. I thought I was reasonably familiar with the tactics and the people involved. I was wrong - almost every page reveals more examples. It is especially upsetting to read of the vast number of well-known people who have cooperated with the tobacco industry, even in recent years.
I repeat just one of many horribly-fascinating quotes (p.114), from Bob Herbert's interview with David Goerlitz, the "Winston Man."
'Goerlitz then asked whether any of the company's executives smoke and got this answer: "Are you kidding? We reserve that right for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid."
Tobacco marketeers seem the best in the world, terrifically inventive, but not in a good way. Pitting their skills against the judgement of children seems an unfair match. I'm learning they have been far more inventive than I thought. Adults can do as they wish, but very few adults start smoking and keep doing it. The typical age when adult smokers first started has moved down from the late teens to early teens. Proctor traces the various marketing campaigns that accomplished that goal (pp.71-83).
Proctor also discusses an odd connection of tobacco and climate change (pp.516-518). Tobacco production, distribution and use has a surprisingly high CO2 footprint, starting with cutting trees not just to grow tobacco but to cure it. Perhaps worse, tobacco pioneered many of the disinformation and doubt-creating tactics found pervasively today around environmental issues, as per Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Many of the main thinktanks involved in such activities turn out to have long histories of getting money from tobacco companies to help them. (Thank you, tobacco archives. It is a wonderful resource, as Proctor notes.)
The book's blurbs are from real experts, so I can add little, but to say this is very important book.
It will upset people ... and people should be upset.
Still, I am learning a great deal from this meticulously-documented book, which articulates the pervasive history of an industry that survives only by addicting children while their brains are developing. I thought I was reasonably familiar with the tactics and the people involved. I was wrong - almost every page reveals more examples. It is especially upsetting to read of the vast number of well-known people who have cooperated with the tobacco industry, even in recent years.
I repeat just one of many horribly-fascinating quotes (p.114), from Bob Herbert's interview with David Goerlitz, the "Winston Man."
'Goerlitz then asked whether any of the company's executives smoke and got this answer: "Are you kidding? We reserve that right for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid."
Tobacco marketeers seem the best in the world, terrifically inventive, but not in a good way. Pitting their skills against the judgement of children seems an unfair match. I'm learning they have been far more inventive than I thought. Adults can do as they wish, but very few adults start smoking and keep doing it. The typical age when adult smokers first started has moved down from the late teens to early teens. Proctor traces the various marketing campaigns that accomplished that goal (pp.71-83).
Proctor also discusses an odd connection of tobacco and climate change (pp.516-518). Tobacco production, distribution and use has a surprisingly high CO2 footprint, starting with cutting trees not just to grow tobacco but to cure it. Perhaps worse, tobacco pioneered many of the disinformation and doubt-creating tactics found pervasively today around environmental issues, as per Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Many of the main thinktanks involved in such activities turn out to have long histories of getting money from tobacco companies to help them. (Thank you, tobacco archives. It is a wonderful resource, as Proctor notes.)
The book's blurbs are from real experts, so I can add little, but to say this is very important book.
It will upset people ... and people should be upset.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am pleased to say I have read and greatly enjoyed this book. As others have already stated, the tobacco industry and various of its co-conspirators are exposed in Proctor's Golden Holocaust. This includes a history of lies, fraud, conspiracy to defraud and misrepresent, illegal actions, and entwining politicians, academics, public relations experts and media reporters, and many others in deceiving the public, various government authorities and health officials in believing a manufactured history of the tobacco industry and its products. For tobacco companies, perception is reality, and they are like magicians who use influence, distraction, diversion and timing to free themselves from the chains of their unethical and fatal entrapments. Yet hundreds of millions of their customers are freed only by an early death.
If this was the only message of this book, then it would just be another, very in-depth indictment of an industry already found guilty through the RICO, organized crime law in the US. The US government decision against the tobacco companies runs 1,700 pages and also documents the nefarious history of the industry. What is important to me, in addition to the scholarship in tracing the web of deceit and fraud of the industry, is the fact that the author provides some recommendations for action against the industry. There are 20 recommendations; ten the author calls obvious solutions, mostly designed to reduce demand, and ten that are less obvious, but in my mind more important. History is a teacher that we ignore at our peril, so it is important to see the kinds of supply-side measures and proposals that the author suggests. In the end, the author suggests that manufactured tobacco products be abolished as a fitting realization of our neglect of the reality of tobacco's brutal consequences as a consumer product. His many recommendations are important possibilities for immediate action to get to that final resolution.
I recommend this and other historical books, for example, The Cigarette Century and the free online, Inherently Bad, and Bad Only, which shed light on tobacco control history and how pervasively the tobacco industry has insinuated itself and its products into the consumer culture. The take away message from this book for me is that history should be a motivator to fundamental change of a broken corporate and consumer system which continues to allow the `free trade' of the deadliest, most costly product of all time.
If this was the only message of this book, then it would just be another, very in-depth indictment of an industry already found guilty through the RICO, organized crime law in the US. The US government decision against the tobacco companies runs 1,700 pages and also documents the nefarious history of the industry. What is important to me, in addition to the scholarship in tracing the web of deceit and fraud of the industry, is the fact that the author provides some recommendations for action against the industry. There are 20 recommendations; ten the author calls obvious solutions, mostly designed to reduce demand, and ten that are less obvious, but in my mind more important. History is a teacher that we ignore at our peril, so it is important to see the kinds of supply-side measures and proposals that the author suggests. In the end, the author suggests that manufactured tobacco products be abolished as a fitting realization of our neglect of the reality of tobacco's brutal consequences as a consumer product. His many recommendations are important possibilities for immediate action to get to that final resolution.
I recommend this and other historical books, for example, The Cigarette Century and the free online, Inherently Bad, and Bad Only, which shed light on tobacco control history and how pervasively the tobacco industry has insinuated itself and its products into the consumer culture. The take away message from this book for me is that history should be a motivator to fundamental change of a broken corporate and consumer system which continues to allow the `free trade' of the deadliest, most costly product of all time.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Harry Lando
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I will not comment in detail because the prior reviews have done an excellent job of summarizing key points of this outstanding resource. What I found unusual in addition to the very impressive scholarship and documentation is how engaging the writing is even when addressing such complex issues as causation and chemical constituents of tobacco smoke. There are many points that are both fascinating and horrifying. Perhaps what surprised me the most is how much I did not know previously despite my many years in this field. I have been actively promoting the book to all those who are concerned about the tobacco epidemic and how this epidemic might be addressed despite the power of the tobacco industry. Golden Holocaust will fascinate scholars and lay readers alike and will be a major reference for many years to come. Even very knowledgeable readers will be surprised by many of the revelations in this book.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you wanted to know about tobacco but weren't allowed to...
The denial. The chicanery. The racketeering. The flim-flam. The hawking of a poisonous drug that does not get you loaded. The slow asphixiation of millions. Read more
Published 13 days ago by S. A DUNN
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome! A powerful weapon to bring down the tobacco criminals.
When we know that cigarettes kill by the hundreds of millions, why do we give licenses and corporate charters instead of prison sentences to these people? Read more
Published 1 month ago by Wild Dove
5.0 out of 5 stars
Golden Holocaust
This is an incredible book. Our company manufactures a product which is being used for smoking cessation and I was not aware of the depth of deception carried on by the tobacco... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Charles A. Fisher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everybody should read this book
Probably the most comprehensive book on this topic. For years, the tobacco industry has deliberately sold an addictive poison. Proctor's book is very well documented.
Published 2 months ago by Jean michel Muller
5.0 out of 5 stars
eloquent indictment of unspeakable evil
Other excellent reviews on this page have discussed Proctor's indepth study of the tobacco industry's web of lies, seduction, bullying, manipulation and unquenchable greed. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Susan Vilas Grulee
5.0 out of 5 stars
A terrific book
As someone who has been involved in the nonsmokers' rights movement for almost 40 years, I thought I knew quite a lot about the tobacco industry, but Golden Holocaust has opened my... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Pete
1.0 out of 5 stars
The book of an admirer of Nazi policy
The choice of the title of this book, "Golden Holocaust", is ironic and perverse. It is also an insult to the families of Holocaust victims and in itself a severe form of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by belshaz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive.
This is the most comprehensive book on the subject that I've read and I've read a lot. I thought I knew a lot about the tobacco industry but this book was eye opening. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Joseph
5.0 out of 5 stars
READ THIS BOOK !
If you smoke. Did smoke. Know someone who smokes. Want to guit or not. Think you should or shouldn't. Have quit many times before. Etc. Etc. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Darlin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic book
Fantastic book. Let we know that since the 30's is well stablished the link between smoking and cancer. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nelson M. Silva Lima
