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

Gately starts at the beginning, with the Indians who discovered tobacco and consumed it in a number of fashions. When Europeans were introduced, they quickly became addicted and tobacco became one of the most valuable crops around. Although Gately goes all the way to the present day and the decline of tobacco (at least in the U.S.), and he does discuss some of the health problems related to smoking, there is a sense he is downplaying the dangers of the substance and the industry's complicity in avoiding reform.

Despite his biases, Gately does present most of the facts and even if you don't agree with his views, he is still a good writer and he covers this topic with a brisk and often humorous style. This is a good read for those interested in history from the point-of-view of a substance instead a person or a nation.

At first, Gately's Tobacco is simply a history, objectively told with an amusing tone. The prose is fast-paced, well-researched and, as far as it goes, honest. Despite Gately's well-reasoned and informative arguments, I have my doubts about the extent of tobacco's influence on historical/political situations, but then, it's difficult to know how seriously Gately takes such arguments himself.

But Gately's emphasis of tobacco's role in civilization (Western civilization particularly) gains a certain edginess the closer the book gets to the modern age. Gately is quite honest about the medical/addictive aspect of tobacco smoke. His defense of tobacco rests mostly on the intelligent and defendable grounds of libertarianism. But there is still something unsettling about such a defense in the face of Gately's honest description of the tobacco companies' approach to teen smokers. Although he isn't defending the tobacco companies, the reader almost begins to wish he would. Gately's c'est la vie shrug of the shoulders seems a tad Machiavellian, even by libertarian standards.

The trouble seems to be that Gately is too honest for his own good. A less honest man would defend tobacco without reference to the unsavory elements of its history and nature. Gately begins on an engagingly cavalier "Boy, isn't tobacco interesting" note but ends on a panegyric which comes off as a trifle naive in the face of what Gately himself has written. I don't question Gately's right to smoke or even the implication that anti-smoking has become something of an emotional crusade with science being used as a bludgeoning tool, but Gately's own Tobacco: A Cultural History simply doesn't lend itself to a rah, rah approach in favor of the weed.

Recommendation: Despite the three stars, give it try. The history is fascinating.