The Cigarette Century Analysis

The Cigarette Century

From flappers to movie stars, cigarettes became an integral, flexible prop. Cigarettes are a familiar part of the American culture and have been for hundreds of years. Allan M. Brandt author of the book The Cigarette Century, states, “Cigarettes are the product that defined America.” Cigarettes became a popular modern commodity as consumer beliefs developed. The product intertwined and blossomed with the development of American business, advertisement, and consumerism in the modern age. As cigarette consumption skyrocketed, evidence that cigarette smoking, and second hand smoke was dangerous was yet to emerge. Knowledge of the health effects has since had a complex effect on the public and the industry. American policy, industry strategy, and lawsuits concerning cigarettes have all provided windows into governments, industry, and public confrontation with risk, freedom, responsibility, and blame over the course of the last hundred years. Thus is why all Americans have a bias towards cigarette smoke, tobacco companies and products, and because of this, the product oftentimes has an ethical position-somewhat contradictory, as being both a leading cause of cancer and as an appealing product to some.
The book encompasses five well thought out chapters that
More Americans also began moving more into the cities and there was a mass shift from agricultural to factory jobs, making the cigarette fit well into the more disciplined schedule of the factory jobs. Author Allan Brandt claims that the innovators who made the cigarettes overwhelming popular did not predict how successful they would be, “Not only had cigarettes displaced all other forms of tobacco use; total consumption of tobacco increased dramatically in the first half of the twentieth century,” (pg