Book Review Ashes to Ashes, Richard Kluger, Vintage Books, 1997. 807 Pp. $35.00
| Pages | 68 |
| Citation | Vol. 73 Pg. 68 |
| Publication year | 2021 |
73 CBJ 68. BOOK REVIEW ASHES TO ASHES, RICHARD KLUGER, VINTAGE BOOKS, 1997. 807 Pp. $35.00
Author Richard Kluger's Pulitzer Prize winning study of the cigarette industry is packed tight with details. It took Kluger some 6-1/2 years to research and write this book, and the result is outstanding.
While the author's anti-cigarette bias is obvious, the duplicity and subterfuge of the cigarette industry cannot be ignored. Kluger points out how tobacco industries' research and development funds were aimed at disproving the health hazards of cigarettes, and that decisions were made to cut off funding and research projects where preliminary results pointed to toboacco or cigarette smoke and disease. Research was always supported which sought to link lung cancer with nonsmoking toxins within the environment. The author uncovered the attempts by the cigarette giants to discredit and humiliate any scientists who dare to publish research supporting the link between cancer or heart disease and cigarette smoking. Indeed, some of the early research tried to promote the. healthful effects of smoking - ease the nervous worker, soothe the harried mother, quiet the angry driver.
Outside the laboratories, the tobacco industry poured vast sums of money into political campaigns and sought to curry favor and win friends in Washington. A highly paid, extensive network of lobbyists was always ready to argue against any restriction on tobacco sales. Industry spokespeople were quick to champion the democratic principle of free choice, and to use that concept as a battle cry to promote the addiction of countless cigarette smokers, who, once hooked on nicotine, were unable to break their habit.
Ashes to Ashes tracks the rise of Philip Morris to prominence among the tobacco company rivals. Kluger details the cut-throat sales practices within the industry, as each company sought to grab a greater market share. The success of tobacco sales put the leading tobacco companies awash in money. They used excess cash to buy good citizen status-the companies embarked on social philanthropy on a grand scale - gifts to the ACLU (freedom of speech) and to soup kitchens and educational institutions. job-training programs and the performing arts were all beneficiaries of the tobacco company money (and hence, many of these organizations...
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