Future historians will wonder why, despite the risks, society persisted in its warm relationship with the cigarette; by the end of the century global consumption was still rising. The 1995 symposium at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine not only examined tobacco's connection with health, but the varied attitudes towards smoking, which have included regarding it as ‘manly', relaxing, fashionable - and decadent. A particular feature was a witness seminar attended not only by those who had made the initial discovery but by those with a crucial role in promoting public awareness of the dangers. And, as shown in this book, we still cannot escape the paradox that, while a considerable proportion of a country's population is hooked on the cigarette, the tobacco industry and the government are equally addicted to the profits and tax revenues it generates.

Future historians will wonder why, despite the risks, society persisted in its warm relationship with the cigarette; by the end of the century global consumption was still rising. The 1995 symposium at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine not only examined tobacco's connection with health, but the varied attitudes towards smoking, which have included regarding it as 'manly', relaxing, fashionable - and decadent. A particular feature was a witness seminar attended not only by those who had made the initial discovery but by those with a crucial role in promoting public awareness of the dangers. And, as shown in this book, we still cannot escape the paradox that, while a considerable proportion of a country's population is hooked on the cigarette, the tobacco industry and the government are equally addicted to the profits and tax revenues it generates.

This book is a concise history of smoking in British popular culture from the early 19th century to the present day. It explores the culture of the pipe and the cigar in the 19th century, the role of the cigarette in the mass market economy of the early 20th century, and the politics of smoking and health since the 1950s. Combining a wide range of historical sources with examples drawn from film and popular literature, it provides a comprehensive social, cultural, and economic history of smoking.