Smoke: A Global History of SmokingGoldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies Sander L Gilman, Sander L. Gilman, Sander I. Gilman, Xun Zhou, Zhou Xun Human beings have always smoked, and they probably always will. Every culture in recorded history has smoked something, whether as a cure or for pleasure, whether as part of a ritual or as an aspect of popular culture. It is curious, then, that no history of smoking has been written based on the assumption that smoking – in all of its forms and products – is a cultural phenomenon common to all human societies. Smoke: A Global History of Smoking examines the culture of smoking in different traditions and locations around the world. From opium dens in Victorian England to tobacco in Edo period Japan, and from ganja and cocaine to Havana cigars, Smoke encompasses the subject as no book has before. Based in cultural history, it employs a large number of images as part of its evidence: around 300 illustrations document smoking and smokers of many substances including tobacco, scented cigarettes, marijuana, opium and cocaine. The various essays examine the changing role of smoking in high and popular culture, ranging from images used in advertising to the legal and moral critiques of smoking, and from opera to the internet. Smoke will appeal to all those who smoke, all those who used to smoke, and all those who have tried, and failed, to give it up. |
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activity addiction advertising African American appears artists associated became become Bernays body brands called cause central China Chinese cigar cigarette claims cocaine Collection common companies consumer consumption continued created culture dangerous described diseases drug early East effects English especially Europe European example fact fashion figure give given habit hand History illustrated images important individual industry inhaled Japan Japanese Jews known label late later leaves light literature living London Lucky male means medicine nature nicotine nineteenth century noted offered opium original painting period person pipe plant play pleasure political popular practice published refers relations Samhitā scene seems seen shows smoking social society Strike suggests symbol things tion tobacco trade tradition turn West Western woman women York
Popular passages
Page 146 - Flesh fade, and mortal trash Fall to the residuary worm; ' world's wildfire, leave but ash: In a flash, at a trumpet crash, I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I am, and This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal diamond, Is immortal diamond.
Page 18 - While their sorrow's at the height, Lose discrimination quite. And their hasty wrath let fall To appease their frantic gall, On the darling thing whatever Whence they feel it death to sever, Though it be, as they, perforce. Guiltless of the sad divorce. For I must (nor let it grieve thee, Friendliest of plants, that I must) leave thee.
Page 11 - The leaues thereof being dried and brought into powder: they vse to take the fume or smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of claie into their stomacke and heade; from whence it purgeth superfluous fleame & other grosse humors, openeth all the pores & passages of the body...
Page 41 - It cures the gout in the feet, and (which is miraculous) in that very instant when the smoke thereof, as light, flies up into the head, the virtue thereof, as heavy, runs down to the little toe. It helps all sorts of agues. It makes a man sober that was drunk. It refreshes a weary man, and yet makes a man hungry. Being taken when they go to bed, it makes one sleep soundly, and yet being taken when a man is sleepy and drowsy, it will, as they say, awake his brain, and quicken his understanding.
Page 25 - In spite of dire forewarnings that my brains will all be scattered, My memory extinguished, and my nervous system shattered, That my hand will take, to trembling, and my heart begin to flutter, My digestion turn a rebel to my very bread and butter ; As I puff this mild Havana, and its ashes slowly...
Page 39 - Nicotian is good too. I could say what I know of the virtue of it, for the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, crudities, obstructions, with a thousand of this kind; but I profess myself no quack-salver. Only...
Page 23 - Strode across the hills and broke them, Rode across the hills and broke them — The barren New England hills — Riding to hounds Over the cow-pasture. Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked And danced all the modern dances; And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it, But they knew that it was modern. Upon the glazen shelves kept watch Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith, The army of unalterable law.
Page 145 - Brother Man the Rasta man, beard full of lichens brain full of lice watched the mice come up through the floorboards of his downtown, shanty-town kitchen, and smiled. Blessed are the poor in health, he mumbled, that they should inherit this wealth. Blessed are the meek hearted, he grumbled, for theirs is this stealth. Brother Man the Rasta man, hair full of...
Page 126 - ... a lone man's companion, a bachelor's friend, a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, a wakeful man's sleep, and a chilly man's fire, Sir ; while for stanching of wounds, purging of rheum, and settling of the stomach, there's no herb like unto it under the canopy of heaven.
References to this book
Thinking about Deviance: A Realistic Perspective Paul C. Higgins,Mitchell B. Mackinem Limited preview - 2008 |
Bibliographic information
| Title | Smoke: A Global History of Smoking |
| Editors | Goldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies Sander L Gilman, Sander L. Gilman, Sander I. Gilman, Xun Zhou, Zhou Xun |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Reaktion Books, 2004 |
| ISBN | 1861892004, 9781861892003 |
| Length | 408 pages |
| Subjects | › › Medical / Toxicology Social Science / Sociology / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |