From Library Journal
Novelist Gately (The Assessor) presents an ambitious historical survey of humanity's love/hate relationship with tobacco. He traces the path the "Devil's weed" took after Native Americans offered Europeans their first nicotine hit. Gately pays particular attention to the evolving methods of ingesting tobacco, pays respect to the pleasurable ambience of the smoking experience, and even offers a final chapter on how to grow tobacco in your backyard. His tributes to tobacco are counterbalanced by evidence that smoking has sent many users to early graves. Yet he is very critical of many claims made by the antismoking industry, particularly the claim that secondary smoke is as harmful as direct inhalation. The book was originally published in London as Diva Nicotina, and the title change is indicative of the contents: Gately downplays the addictive power of nicotine and in the final analysis contends that 1.2 billion smokers could not be wrong. This volume is sparsely documented, and the reader is inclined to question many of Gately's statements, such as his contention that tobacco can "guard against cancer of the womb." Jordan Goodman's Tobacco in History (Routledge, 1994. reprint) offers a more balanced history. An optional purchase for academic and public libraries. Jim Doyle, Sara Hightower Regional Lib., Rome, GA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Tobacco's ubiquity in history, culture, fashion, and literature testifies to its imperviousness to all propaganda denouncing it, from King James I's antiweed screed, A Counterblaste to Tobacco, to contemporary lawsuits. According to Gately, people will always crave nicotine, despite the surgeon general's warnings. Just why they love to light up goes beyond the physical aspect of nicotine's stimulating effects. Gately's jaunty tour aims to elucidate the ineffable attraction of the drug. The sociability of smoking, with its implements and rituals, was plain if perplexing to the first Europeans, who were struck with wonderment over the elaborate calumets of Native Americans. Delivered by pipe, and subsequently via rolled cigars, powdered snuff, and cigarettes, tobacco has generated elaborate customs of combustion that Gately, chaw often firmly in cheek, risibly regales. An inspiration to writers, a consolation to soldiers, a seduction to lovers, the leaf has also had a munificent economic life. An entertaining story of humanity's Faustian bargain with tobacco. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
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
About the Author
Iain Gately is the author of the novel The Assessor.
