The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette

by Jacob Grier

The cigarette is the most lethal consumer product in history. The movement to extinguish smoking, however, has become alarmingly illiberal. Smoking bans have spread beyond restaurants and bars to parks, beaches, and sidewalks; rising cigarette taxes rob the wages of society's least well-off; moral panic threatens smokers' access to potentially life-saving e-cigarettes; and smokers are discriminated against, stigmatized, and made to feel unwelcome in society. What if there's a better way? The Rediscovery of Tobacco is a moderate manifesto against the extremes of the anti-smoking movement. This contrarian take on smoking makes the case for respecting the choices of consenting adults, acknowledging the genuine pleasures of pipes and cigars, and encouraging an innovative market for lower-risk competitors that will finally end the deadly reign of the cigarette.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 18, 2019

Reviews

[Yael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal book— covering everything from the early uses of tobacco, the anti-smoking ideological movement and history, vape innovation, pipe/cigar connoisseurs, and defending vice in moderation.

Sums up consumer choice to a T.

There is enough history to make us really rethink what we think about tobacco, and also enough statistical firepower to win every debate. Kudos.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book on a timely topic. I was a cigarette smoker until I switched to e-cigarettes on the recommendation of my doctors. The transition from being a smoker to a vaper has been an interesting experience and one I am enjoying. But I'm an American living in France and not the US. In France (and the UK) the consensus has formed around harm reduction and the e-cigarette is widely promoted as a safer alternative. It's regulated for safety but not over-regulated so there are local vape shops everywhere and all kinds of products (e-liquid) are available that are Made in France by French companies. All that seems quite sensible to me but not to folks back in the Homeland. My American friends in the US seem absolutely convinced that vaping is no safer than smoking and they go into a complete panic when they hear I have taken it up.

Grier's book was very helpful to my understanding of how cigarettes came to dominate the market and all discussions about nicotine delivery systems today. I had not thought about cigar or pipe smokers, and I knew nothing about the use of snus in the Nordic countries.

Give this one a read. Good research, good storytelling, and some arguments that you make you think a little differently about the debates over harm reduction versus abstinence.

Well done, Mr. Grier.

[Spence Byer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun and worth the time. Grier does an incredible job outlining the history of tobacco, how consumption has shifted over time, and regulatory capture by Big Tobacco. Would recommend reading this book and skipping 3 of the middle chapters which I’ll summarize below.

Summary of Skippable Chapters:

Chapter “Smoking Gun” - Cigarettes are very unhealthy but other forms aren’t so bad. This chapter appears to be drawn out self-justification research that you could show to your wife as she complains about your cigar/pipe use.

Chapter “Secondhand News” - Research on risks of secondhand smoke are grossly inflated and Third-Hand Smoke is total BS

Chapter “Rooms of their Own” - Grier essentially claims that tobacco users are discriminated against and makes some pretty bold claims that anti-smoking legislation are discriminatory against poor people. Appreciate the points but many are taken a bit far.

[Patsy McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because it was written by my best friend's son, whom I have known his whole life. However, I am glad that I read it because it taught me a lot about tobacco.

The author did extensive research on tobacco and the ways it has been used and abused in this country. Although as a non-smoker I disagree with his premise that the anti-smoking crowd has gone too far, I enjoyed reading his analysis.

[Eric Keur · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a smoker of cigars I wonder why it become more difficult every year to enjoy that one or two cigars a week that I smoke. I have the luck that my house allows me to smoke indoors. And I have the luck that there is a cigar lounge with a backroom in my hometown where I can smoke a cigar and talk to other like minded people.

I understand the risk of smoking cigarettes and the addition that comes with it. I am not in denial of this, but I also see the other side of this. The side where it is not bad to smoke as long as you have money and can do it in fancy clubs. While if you have a low income people are frowning upon you when you smoke behind a building or somewhere hidden because the environment judge you for doing this. While if you smoke a joint you are part of the society and all is well! We legalize smoking drugs, we are thinking about legalizing hard drugs and yet he who smokes a cigar has to be dealt with. That seems somewhat odd to me.

In the Netherlands during the Covid-19 lock-down all nonessential shops had to close. The resulted in the situation where I could go to a liquor store (deemed essential by our government), I could buy my weed and marijuana (both essential as well). But I wasn't allowed to buy a cigar because that is nonessential, while cigarettes in the supermarkets are of course all over the place for sale at all the time. Of course cigars are nonessential, even for me. Of course I could buy them online. Mind you only in the Netherlands, because we may have one EU I am not allowed to buy cigars from Germany and send them to my house. We may have a global economy, but every cigar send from anywhere outside of Europe to the Netherlands is being returned to sender.

Anyhow, enough of my ranting, the book provided a clear view of the forces in pace against the cigarette industry and the role the industry itself place in that game. It also shows how these forces of ideology try to not stop smoking, but also make certain that nicotine can not be taken in by any other means possible like the e-cigarette or snuss. Amazing how it is not for health purposes at all, because that may have been it's originate background, but that is now long forgotten.

In addition it was nice to see how these things work in the USA and how much influence that has here in Europe. I learned a lot about the history of smoking and the forces that try to keep it alive or ban it from the face of the earth.