Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization.

IAN GATELY

By the time Christopher Columbus reached the shores of North America, tobacco had reached every corner of the American continents including offshore islands such as Cuba. Europeans, like the Native Americans before them, embraced tobacco with verve. But why do some people like to smoke? And why is tobacco their plant of choice to smoke? An unabashed smoker himself, Gately helps answer these questions by relating 18,000 years of tobacco history. He reports that the plant's leaves have had many uses. They were an insecticide for other crops, and some South American tribes used tobacco juice to kill skin lice. Tobacco has also had a life as a remedy for toothaches and a tool of shamans. Early Maya and other South American cultures used it as currency. Some cultures reacted harshly to the plant and its users: Murad IV, the ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, is believed to have had 25,000 smokers killed during his reign, and Japan banned smoking five times before giving up. Yet more than 1.2 billion people in the world smoke today. Originally published in Great Britain in 2001. Grove, 2001, 403 p., hardcover, $25.00.