In the South, a white community turns against a lawyer who decides to defend a black maid accused of stealing a silver tea service from her mistress. The story, which is set in Virginia in the final year of World War II, is narrated by the lawyer's 12-year-old daughter.

Whereas most crops drive farmers apart as they compete for the best prices, the price controls on tobacco bring growers together. The result is a culture unlike any other in America, one often forgotten or overlooked as federal and state governments fight over the spoils of the tobacco settlement. Tobacco Culture describes the process of raising a crop of burley from the perspective and experience of the farmers themselves. In the process of gathering information for the book, the authors performed most steps in the tobacco production process, from dropping plants, burning seedbeds, topping, and cutting to stripping and baling the finished product. Van Willigen and Eastwood document both present practices and historical developments in tobacco farming at the very moment a way of life stands poised for dramatic change. In addition to growing practices, the authors found other common threads linking growers and tobacco producing regions. Where tobacco is grown, it often becomes the major cash crop and carries the health of the economy. Farmer Oscar Richardson states, "It's bread and butter. It's the industry of the community, the state as a whole.... You take tobacco out of Kentucky and this farmland wouldn't be worth a nickel." Combining cultural anthropology and oral history, John van Willigen and Susan Eastwood have created a remarkable portrait of the heart of the burley belt in Central Kentucky.

Charles Abell takes a journey into the past. This Dean of Southern Maryland College, who debuted in the novel, Cuckold Creek, becomes immersed in a family mystery after he listens to an oral history tape recorded by his mother before her death. As though she is speaking from the grave, his mother's words haunt him, launching him on an investigation of an incident in his family's past. The family mystery, revealed in a painting, sends Charles on a search for truth about life at Elysium, the family farm overlooking the historic Port Tobacco Valley. The story revolves around a lynching in 1896, planned at a baseball game and carried out by upstanding members of the community. While he is caught in an undertow of problems at the institution he has helped to build, Charles is brought to the brink of personal and professional failure when Southern Maryland College faces devastating financial loss. It could lose its accreditation and be forced to close; Charles is helpless to stop it until a postcard arrives in the mail with a cryptic instruction that alters the course of his life.

This report describes tobacco control policies in the WHO European Region as of late 2006. It reviews progress following the adoption of the European Strategy for Tobacco Control (ESTC) in 2002 and establishes a baseline for monitoring implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in the Region. It presents an overview of the situation regarding tobacco use and related harm in the WHO European Region during the period 2002-06 and the policy responses of Member States. The report also examines the status of these policies in the light of the requirements of the WHO FCTC. Several short national, regional and subregional case studies illustrate the lessons learned and challenges faced during the policy-making process.