How many cigarettes are sold each year, worldwide? Believe it or not, six trillion. Our guest, who calls the cigarette "the deadliest artifact in the history of human civilization," was the first-ever historian, several years ago, to testify in court against Big Tobacco. On this installment of ST, which first aired earlier this year, we speak with Robert N. Proctor, Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. His new book, available from the University of California Press, is called "Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition." It's, quite obviously, a book that takes a stance --- a certain and unwavering point of view --- regarding its subject, but it's also, at more than 750 pages, very deeply researched and methodically articulated. Indeed, "Golden Holocaust" employs scores of formerly-secret tobacco-industry documents to carefully explain how the cigarette came to be the most widely-used drug on the planet.
"Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition" (Encore presentation.)
