During the Crimean War British soldiers developed an affinity for tobacco smoke. Upon returning to Great Britain they brought with them the habit of smoking tobacco. The proliferation of smoking sparked the first public debate about its effects. Beginning in 1857, this passionate debate of those both for and against the use of tobacco was laid out in the British Medical Journal The Lancet. Ultimately the Controversy led to no immediate results, but it acted as an introduction to the real and possible effects of tobacco smoking. And, it left a lasting impact on the tobacco question.

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.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.