The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco

by Eric Burns

Fox News Watch host Eric Burns, who chronicled the social history of alcohol in "The Spirits of America "turns to tobacco in "The Smoke of the Gods." Ranging from ancient times to the present day, "The Smoke of the Gods" is a lively history of tobacco, especially in the United States. Although tobacco use is controversial in the U.S. today, Burns reminds us that this was not always the case. For centuries tobacco was generally thought to have medicinal and even spiritual value. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were tobacco users or growers, or both. According to Burns, tobacco changed the very course of U.S. history, because its discovery caused the British to support Jamestown, its struggling New World colony. An entertaining and informative look at a subject that makes daily news headlines, "The Smoke of the Gods" is a history that is, well, quite addictive.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Eric Burns is an American media critic and journalist. He began his career as a correspondent for NBC News where he appeared regularly on NBC Nightly News and on the Today show.

Burns has written five critically-acclaimed books and continues to work in television. He has worked as a commentator for Entertainment Tonight, host of Arts & Entertainment Revue on A&E, and is the former host of Fox News Channel's Fox News Watch, as well as a media analyst for the network.

Burns received an Emmy Award for media criticism and was named by the Washington Journalism Review as one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism.

Reviews

[Steven Allen]

Checked this out from my local library for possible inclusion in the home reference writing library. Glad I checked it out from the library - it's meh. The author attempts at humor were not to my tastes and I did not find it humorous at all. Some of the information is interesting but not enough to buy this book.

[JZ Temple]

This book is a casual but interesting social history of tobacco consumption, starting off with the ancient Mayans and the discovery and explotation of the plant and it's products by Europeans and later settlers in the New World. The book is primarily focused on the United States use of tobacco. The author's emphasis is mainly on the people and institutions involved with tobacco use or in the attempt to suppress it. While it's not quite a lighthearted look, it is definitely less than serious. It is very readable and full of lots of "oh, I didn't know that" moments, like that there was a woman who was known as the "Carry Nation of tobacco" who spent her life trying to suppress it's use and in her time was as famous as the original Carry Nation.

[Jer Wilcoxen]

On the hokie side of history. Style wasn't for me, told in a folksy way.

[Dennis]

I really enjoyed this book about the history of tobacco use and its impact on the history of the United States. I particularly enjoyed the sections about King James I and Sir Walter Raleigh. Fun read. I am moving on to another similar book by the same author, "the Spirits of America" about the history of alcohol.

[Mike Prochot]

Interesting, entertaining and very informative history of tobacco. How it came to be, how it has been used; from religious and medicinal purposes, to currency, to cancer causing pariah.

Makes me like my cigars even more!