This book presents the widely acclaimed, award-winning history of the cigarette. From agriculture to big business, from medicine to politics, ''The Cigarette Century'' is the definitive account of how smoking came to be so deeply implicated in our culture, science, policy and law. No product has been so heavily promoted or has become so deeply entrenched in our consciousness. ''The Cigarette Century'' shows in striking detail how one ephemeral (and largely useless) product came to play such a dominant role in so many aspects of our lives - and deaths.