San Antonio College Library

Traces tobacco's evolution from a necessity to a coveted commodity that would forever change the economy by documenting the history of this plant, from its use as a sacred calumet of the Plains Indians to the controversy surrounding it today. Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began...

""Doubt is our product," a cigarette executive once observed, "since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy."" "In this expose, David Michaels reveals just how prevalent - and how effective - such strategies have become. He argues that to keep the public confused about the hazards posed by global warming, secondhand smoke, asbestos,...