Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization [Paperback]

Iain Gately (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2003

Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began to colonize the American continents, it became something else entirely -- a cultural touchstone of pleasure and success, and a coveted commodity that would transform the world economy forever. Iain Gately's Tobacco tells the epic story of an unusual plant and its unique relationship with the history of humanity, from its obscure ancient beginnings, through its rise to global prominence, to its current embattled state today. In a lively narrative, Gately makes the case for the tobacco trade being the driving force behind the growth of the American colonies, the foundation of Dutch trading empire, the underpinning cause of the African slave trade, and the financial basis for our victory in the American Revolution. Informed and erudite, Tobacco is a vivid and provocative look into the complex history of this precious plant. "A rich, complex history ... Deeply engaging and witty." -- Carmela Ciuraru, Los Angeles Times "Ambitious ... informative and perceptive ... Gately is an amusing writer, which is a blessing." -- Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post "[Gately] documents the resourcefulness with which human beings of every class, religion, race, and continent have pursued the lethal leaf." -- John Leland, The New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Iain Gately's Tobacco is a sweeping cultural history of the world's most prevalent addiction, and it's probably the best book ever written on its subject. Gately begins in pre-Columbian America, where the natives made tobacco "their most popular gift to the rest of humanity," and continues through all the cantankerous smoking litigation of the 1990s. The story touches on just about every subject imaginable: tobacco in literature, the movies, and society. It would be wrong to call Gately an advocate of smoking, but he clearly takes pleasure, for example, in noting that Hitler's Nazis launched one of history's most vigorous anti-smoking initiatives. The book is full of delicious trivia: Many of Shakespeare's contemporaries smoked, but there's no evidence that the Bard himself did, and none of his plays make any mention of smoking; he "kept his writing a smoke-free zone." Nevertheless, reports Gately with a smirk, there is "archaeological evidence proving that smoking was going on around the Shakespeare household in Stratford-upon-Avon during his life." Smoking aficionados won't want to miss Tobacco, and it's a much healthier gift for them than a box of cigars. --John Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Here it is everything you ever wanted to know about tobacco, from Amerindian prehistory right up to the Clinton/Lewinsky cigar tryst. As Gately traces the role of tobacco in history's major military conflicts and cultural movements, he treats readers to a variety of brief lessons regarding Galenic vs. Chinese medicine, the colonization of the West Indies, the cultivation of tobacco by Australian aboriginals and African tribesmen, Scottish business expansion in the 17th century, the aesthetics of the "narghile" (water pipe) in Asia and much more. He examines both the familiar (peace pipes, chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarettes) and the arcane (techniques for snuffing, tobacco enemas) with appropriate thoroughness. Anyone interested in the origins of the smoking jacket, snuff horns, strike-anywhere matches, meerschaum and briar pipes, or curious about why most signers of the Declaration of Independence were tobacco farmers will not only enjoy this work, but come away with a larger understanding of why tobacco has been so important in human history. While Gately is explicit about the medical risks of tobacco, this global approach stressing the ubiquity of its use suggests it will remain part of our culture for generations to come. With irreverent wit and uncommon grace, Gately shares his enthusiasms with any reader brave enough to buy a book with the demon weed on its cover. A bonus appendix gives readers simple instructions on the cultivation of tobacco at home. Illus. (Jan.)Forecast: Handselling recommended especially to cultural history buffs (and those who reek of you-know-what) since this is a book that might otherwise not get the recognition it deserves.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (January 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802139604
• ISBN-13: 978-0802139603
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #532,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lively History With a Remarkable Point of View, March 12, 2002

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization (Hardcover)

Tobacco is "certainly the most equivocal substance in daily human use," according to Iain Gately. His author photo shows him unequivocally smoking his cigar, and so you might expect that he would go easy on the weed in his book _Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization_ (Grove Press). For those who think that cigarettes are an unalloyed curse, some of his book will be difficult reading. No history of tobacco can ignore the many social and health costs connected to the drug, and Gately's does not. But American Indians were using it for centuries, and in the five centuries since the conquest of the Americas, tobacco has insinuated itself into every diverse culture; there must be a reason that the killer drug is regarded by millions as a pleasure and a comfort. In fact, there are lots of reasons which the plant has exploited, and so it has a rich and complex history. Gately has researched widely and told the history well.

Tobacco has been part of human culture for about 18,000 years. It was cultivated in the Andes region about six thousand years ago, and only eventually smoked. "That lungs had a dual function - could be used for stimulation in addition to respiration - is one of the American continent's most significant contributions to civilization." The gift of dried tobacco leaves to Columbus in the Bahamas got thrown overboard; no one knew why the natives were getting rid of their tobacco leaves this way. The British took to snuff, in imitation of the fashionable French, but also smoked with pipes like the ones North American Indians used. The British were slow to follow the French in cigarette usage, for they were regarded as "a miserable apology" for the more manly pleasure of cigars or pipes; Oscar Wilde enjoyed horrifying society in many ways, and chain-smoking his effeminate cigarettes was one of them. All the nations of the world showed disgust at the particularly American practice of chewing tobacco and thereupon expectorating tinted spittle. Charles Dickens wrote, "In the courts of law, the judge has his spittoon, the crier his, the witness his, and the prisoner his; while the jurymen and the spectators are provided for, as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit incessantly." Modern advertising gets a good examination here; surprisingly, the Marlboro Man was originally no such thing; Philip Morris brought out Marlboros "Mild as May" in 1924, targeted for decent and respectable ladies.

Gately's book has not been edited to be turned into an American version, so American readers will note a disproportionate number of anecdotes and facts from Europe. (An appendix even tells how Her Majesty's subjects can grow the plant in England for their own use.) He has some limp support of tobacco as a guard against such illnesses as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and too often his disdain for the anti-smoking movement is obvious. However, this is a great subject. The effects of tobacco on bodies may be bad, and on society may be bad as well (slavery, for instance, was a New World tradition largely because of tobacco farms), and Gately tells the dark side of the stories well; this is not an apology or an advertisement for smoking, but more of a historical explanation. For anyone who smokes, or who is interested in a world-wide history centered on one particular plant and the uses to which addicted and habituated people have put it, _Tobacco_ tells an important story in an entertaining way.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why don't more authors write books like this?, April 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization (Hardcover)

(I originally wrote this for the UK version of this book on Amazon's UK website).
Put simply, this is a great read. Years of expensive education taught me less about history than Gately has succeeded in doing in 300 fluent pages. But don't think that this is the kind of book that drags its heels as so many non-fiction books can. It's not so much a roller-coaster ride but rather a non-stop tobaggan run as Gately takes you from tobacco's pre-historical roots to its present position as the world's most heavily consumed addictive commodity. Forget the innocent presumption you had that tobacco has done little for history other than hang around in famous mouths (such as Churchill's, Macarthur's, Raleigh's etc.). If it hadn't been for tobacco's influence then half the historical events of the past five hundred years would have turned out differently or might not even have happened at all.
Gately's also very funny, with a tremendous eye for the amusing or the absurd, and he doesn't hesitate to have a dig at anyone who thinks, talks or looks like a fathead. He also comes up with some memorable descriptions which simply beg to be repeated to friends (e.g. the popularity among various races over the centuries of having nicotine enemas, the idea of which makes my mind boggle). My favourite story is his account of the Hottentot males' coming-of-age and how as a race they declined into 'mono-testicular oblivion'. Read the book to find out why they ended up a ball short.
I don't smoke but halfway through this book I rather wished I did as it seems that non-smokers have been missing out on everything for the last five hundred years. It's pretty clear that Gately is a smoker, but don't worry, this book is balanced and the smoking lobby and tobacco companies come in for just as much of a kicking as the antis. He also covers the masses as well as the rich and great, and anybody who was anybody appears between these pages.
I hope Gately is writing something else, because for a first non-fiction book he has really come up with a cracking read and if he gets better at this kind of think then he'll really make his mark. As for its audience, it'll be appreciated by almost everybody, especially by people who do smoke and certainly by people who hate the habit. There are pictures for those of you who can't look at a book without getting a headache ..., and an index for those of you who want to find out if you've been mentioned (you haven't). Sit back and enjoy.
(In the UK the book is called La Diva Nictoina)

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, within limits, May 22, 2002

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization (Hardcover)

Tobacco is an entertaining, nonscholarly look at the role tobacco has played in shaping our civilization over the last five hundred years or so. Gately provides plenty of fascinating information about the importance of tobacco to the Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans in Europe and in North America and does so with a witty, light touch and an ear for a good story, such as how the Hottentots became monotesticular.

The first sections of the book deal with tobacco's spread from the Americas to the rest of the world and its impact on different societies. Towards the end Gately primarily concentrates on tobacco's history in the US and Britain. Gately is British and apparently doesn't have too firm a grasp on American history, because he makes some errors and oversimplifications from time to time that will jump out at US readers, but that's only a minor distraction. While I could have wished for more discussion of the reasons for the increasing number of smokers in Asia and the Third World, I did enjoy Gately's comparisons of the anti-smoking campaigns in Britain and the US during the 1960s and the 1970s. All in all an interesting look at a plant which shaped our society for both good and ill.