Tabaco
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Publicado: 5 de junio de 2012
Perspectives
Book A historian’s indictment of the US tobacco industry
As unlikely as it sounds, the US tobacco industry funded the work of more than 50 historians during the past several decades.This largesse was not motivated by any commitment to disinterested historical scholarship. The industry supported historians who would testify in ways that would help it evade legal liability for theharms caused by the tobacco industry’s promotion of cigarettes over the past 50 years. As Robert Proctor documents in his Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case forAbolition, these historians provided support for two contradictory claims: that, since the 1950s, smokers had been well informed about the harms of tobacco smoking; and the tobacco industry was fullyjustified in publicly denying any connection between smoking and these harms for as long as possible. The historians who were prepared to provide this support often did so without acknowledging that they hadtaken industry money. Proctor—author of Cancer Wars and The Nazi War on Cancer—was one of only three historians who testified against the tobacco industry. Given the book’s provenance, readers shouldnot expect a disengaged scholarly narrative of the discovery of the harms of tobacco smoking and the behaviour of the industry that denied them. Golden Holocaust is not a cool historical analysis thatavoids making moral judgments about the key participants in the narrative. Proctor’s morally engaged historical analysis represents a damning indictment of the US tobacco industry and its well-paidaccomplices. Proctor explains why US Judge Gladys Kessler found in 2006 (in an action brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) that the US tobacco industry had engaged in acriminal conspiracy for more than 50 years. Proctor describes how Judge Kessler found that various
www.thelancet.com Vol 379 March 24, 2012
US tobacco companies had conspired to: deny the...
Book A historian’s indictment of the US tobacco industry
As unlikely as it sounds, the US tobacco industry funded the work of more than 50 historians during the past several decades.This largesse was not motivated by any commitment to disinterested historical scholarship. The industry supported historians who would testify in ways that would help it evade legal liability for theharms caused by the tobacco industry’s promotion of cigarettes over the past 50 years. As Robert Proctor documents in his Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case forAbolition, these historians provided support for two contradictory claims: that, since the 1950s, smokers had been well informed about the harms of tobacco smoking; and the tobacco industry was fullyjustified in publicly denying any connection between smoking and these harms for as long as possible. The historians who were prepared to provide this support often did so without acknowledging that they hadtaken industry money. Proctor—author of Cancer Wars and The Nazi War on Cancer—was one of only three historians who testified against the tobacco industry. Given the book’s provenance, readers shouldnot expect a disengaged scholarly narrative of the discovery of the harms of tobacco smoking and the behaviour of the industry that denied them. Golden Holocaust is not a cool historical analysis thatavoids making moral judgments about the key participants in the narrative. Proctor’s morally engaged historical analysis represents a damning indictment of the US tobacco industry and its well-paidaccomplices. Proctor explains why US Judge Gladys Kessler found in 2006 (in an action brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) that the US tobacco industry had engaged in acriminal conspiracy for more than 50 years. Proctor describes how Judge Kessler found that various
www.thelancet.com Vol 379 March 24, 2012
US tobacco companies had conspired to: deny the...
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