Tobacco Books

I read this book 5 years ago and quit. I'm buying a few copies for some friends. There was one person's story, in particular, that really stuck with me and over the years, I've thought about it many times. The book is a bit dated, but I think still worth reading.

Great book! To me quitting smoking was a very lonley feeling, especially since after I quit it seemed like everywhere I looked or everyone I knew was smoking. Most books tell you how to prepare to quit, This book helps you for after the quitting and plus! Most of the stories are about how they started, all the failures and how they finally quit but everyone can relate to the addiction thing! Buy this book!

Just finished this book this morning. It was very interesting reading the stories and I in fact stopped smoking 3 days ago. But...the stories seemed outdated and talked about a lot of people smoking in offices and homes, etc. You don't see that much these days. Plus, knowing the book was published in 1991, I subconciously added 10 years to the age of everyone in each story and that made me think "I wonder if they stayed quit?" The last section of the book after the stories is very repetitive. "As so-and-so said on page xxx...." seems to be in every other sentence.

I'd recommend reading it still, but better if you can borrow a copy or get it from the local library.

Good luck on quitting!

Simply put, this book and its disarmingly straightforward approach to quitter support gave me the final incentive and push to beat smoking. As I read this book, I found my resolve and courage rising until I was able to make that final decision to quit smoking... and then move on with my life. There is no proselytizing, no scary statistics, or dire predictions of painful death, but hope and encouragement from those who have been in the trenches beside you... as you struggle to take that Last Puff.

OK, so the fancy packaging is cool, but aren't we trying to get rid of all the cigarette and tobacco advertisements through commercials and other ads? "A Branded World" by Michael Levine defines the real meaning of branding to make a company successful without the smoky mess. Once you've read "A Branded World" you will find yourself inhaling, "finally, a book worth reading."

Graphic designers will love this book with its colorful comprehensive overview of cigarette containers from around the world. There must be several hundred packs shown (and beautifully printed with each pack having a drop shadow so they look like they're floating on the page) and the authors have managed to arrange them into meaningful chapters. The chapter dealing with 'Patriotism by the Pack' has some great designs, the Tobacco Alternatives Company issued Glory brand (1996) with a flamboyant use of the Stars and Stripes, the White House produced an elegant pack in the Eighties, a flip-top box in cream with just the President's seal on the front.

Now that smoking has lost its cache the last chapter 'The Anti-Packs' has some really offbeat stuff, Trim brand from the Cornell Drug Company in 1960 suggested on its front that it 'curbs your appetite', aimed at the ladies, naturally. Pure brand in 1995 would have you believe that because their product contained no additives you could puff away in good health. I'm not convinced that all the weird brands shown here were serious attempts at creating mass sales though.

Thibodeau and Martin have written a fascinating study about pack art (and the packs are the dominant items in the book) and though there are other books on the subject the only one that might be comparable is Chris Mullen's 'Cigarette Pack Art' (ISBN 0861367898 or 0312138423) which came out in 1980. Written from a European perspective it perhaps has more historical pack material shown and a lot more text.

Oh yes, the book jacket points out that neither of the authors smoke!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

As a graphic designer, I keep a reference library for ideas. This book is one of my absolute favorites. I've used this book for color schemes, concepts, composition and more. Smoking subject matter aside, this book is a beautiful display of something that is an artform in it's own right.

I'm not a habitual cigarette smoker, but I'm a sucker for vintage packaging design, as well as books about such design. This medium-sized "coffee table" book is well produced and would be an inspiration to anyone interested in graphic design, typography, advertising, and of course smoking. Anthropologists may also be interested in the use of similar icons (i.e. airplanes, reclining women and tigers) that pop up on cigarette packages from a wide range of different countries/cultures. It's a sad thing that you don't find such sumptuous art on cigarette packages anymore - this book shows that the golden age of cigarettes (and also of product design) is long gone. But I'm glad it's being showcased in this book to share with later generations!

This is the greatest book, and so inspiring. From goofy characters to pinup girls and more. Perfect size and a steal for the price. On par with a Taschen release, you can rest assured Beauchamp has the passion. I'm so glad I got this book- Grab it.

I think all the books I've seen on this subject merit high praise, but Striking Images stands out for its layout and focus on the artwork itself. The juxtaposed covers allow for many great samples to be consumed by the eyes at once, while other blown up images assume a Pop Art painting quality. So do not mistake this for a book on vintage matchbooks; this is about the art on the cover. At this price I feel this book's a deal considering the design and thought devoted to it by Mr. Beauchamp - well done! I've encountered his unique passion and perspective on other ephemeral subjects in various issues of Blab!, another book I've collected and highly recommend!!

As the back cover says 'Striking Images is a must see collection of vintage covers...More than 500 images inside!' Good enough for me because I love books about popular visual culture and this one could join the other three I already have about match art.

However I was rather disappointed in the book because of its production. The main problem is that every matchbook has been reduced to a square of either the front or back and then presented butted up (mostly) four to a page so they hardly look like matchbooks at all. It's as if a book about stamps had all the perforations cut off and then joined together. Many are shown whole page, making them too big and over-emphasising the crude printing quality. The book really ends up looking like a collection of badly printed, colorful and exuberant, advertising graphics. Though divided into eight sections there are no page numbers except on the chapter openers and with the covers crammed into all the pages it is annoyingly difficult to find a particular section.

It could have looked so much better like the earlier Chronicle Matchbook Art by Yosh Kashiwabara. Here many of the matchbooks have their front and back shown but the main thing is that they have plenty of page space surrounding each one. Another book: Close Cover Before Striking: The Golden Age of Matchcover Art (Recollectibles) is a handsomely designed title with thirteen chapters of well presented covers. Both books show how fascinating these throw-way bits of art are.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover,

Even if you don't care about matchbook art or matchbook collecting, this book is highly recommended. It collects these beautiful pieces of pop culture ephemera and presents them as art, which they truly are. Each page packs a graphic punch that will knock your socks off. Not only are the endless variety of matchbook designs visually stunning, but Mr. Beauchamp treats the medium itself as part of the piece, enlarging the images so the texture of the paper and even the impression the ink makes become art. A very tasteful and classy treatment for this disposable art form. (I was going to say "unmatched" but I stopped myself.)

The selected artworks run the gamut from restaurants to mascot characters to cars to strip clubs. There's a whole chapter devoted to inspiring, art deco imagery from World War II, any one of which would make a great poster.

Given the limitations of the medium and the printing budget, many of the matchbooks are designed with just two or three colors, making this a textbook for the graphics arts student. In an era in which any ink jet printer can reproduce millions of colors, it's fascinating to see what yesterday's artisans did with such a limited palette.

Some of the matchbook covers are close to actual size while others are blown up to fill the page. Given that there are as many as four pictures on some pages and the book totals 272 pages, there are in excess of 500 pieces of art reproduced here. It's impossible to find a favorite among so many gems.

If you're looking for a good summer book to enjoy at the beach, prepare yourself to read "Close cover before striking" a few hundred times. But if you want to soak your eyeballs in America's rich graphic heritage, Striking Images is a must have.

Michael Orey begins his thorough examination of the courtroom battles against big tobacco by examining Horton v. American Tobacco, the Mississippi case that launched the mid-1980s barrage of legal attacks on big tobacco and led eventually to U.S. settlements of more than $200 billion. As they read about the assault on Brown and Williamson, cinema buffs may feel they are revisiting The Insider with Al Pacino. The book combines a walk-through of the day-to-day legal procedures and motions with a look into the lives of the major players. This well-written volume presents the tobacco case like an engrossing true-crime story, although some readers may find it has too much detail to hold their interest. We [...] recommend this fascinating book to most general readers. But while executives searching for principles to apply to their own companies may find themselves captivated, they won't find much here that is generally applicable.

What an interesting recording how Lawyers violate their own standards of conduct just to win. The book shows how documents about Tobacco were stolen and then how the person who stole them was paid $1.8 million by the very Lawyers he helped to win billions for in fees. Yet, I wondered what those same Lawyers would have the same tactics used against them, how they would feel. But the cause was to show that smoking Cigarettes is evil and not good for our health, yet we already knew this and making the companies admit it was a victory. So in the end whenever someone is being sued and if we applaud those breaking ethics and the laws in pursuit for justice, then we encourage bad behavior. In the end when we celebrate this kind of action how far can murder, threats of murder and destruction's of families will be justified in pursuit of justice? Billions have been made, billions have been won, but by whom and for whom? No one should be proud of their actions as described in the book and if they are they can wonder later what will happen when others use the same tactics are them. What is tragic is Society knew shortly after the Native Americans gave Tobacco to Columbus that it was deadly, but people wanted it, and used it, so the governments created Sin Taxes to help discourage it. It did not work back then and it will not work now. People will be free to do what they want and nothing will stop it. At the same time, no one should begin to smoke or smoke but how do you stop it. The book is a great read. I recommend it highly but read it without smoking if you can!

It may seem paradoxical to most that for trial lawyers are not afraid to lose a case. Every trial is a learning experience. You learn about your opponent; you learn about yourself. You try a losing case over and over in your head at night. You learn from your mistakes. You learn from the opposing lawyer. You become obsessed and through it all you learn how to win.

This is the true story of some country lawyers in Mississippi who launched a holy war against Big Tobacco. They were unlikely Davids battling a Goliath.

The country lawyers looked like easy pickings to the big firm lawyers from the big cities. The silk stocking crowd would bury them in paper, bankrupt them in endless discovery, and outdazzle them in court, if the bumpkins ever got that far. These champions of nicotine had never lost a case. The clients had never paid one dime to any tobacco victim. They were the chosen ones, selected to keep the streak alive, to bring home the scalps of the piteous Mississippi lawyers.

Trial lawyers know that a lawyer who has never lost a case has never tried a case. Undeterred by the myth of invincibility of the tobacco industry these dreamers were able to use the industry's incredible arrogance on itself to bring it to its knees. In short, the truth got out, and the rest is history.

If you are a law student or a young lawyer thinking about trying cases for a living, read this book. This is how its done and how you can sleep at night.

Ehwa's book, The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, is, in my opinion, a book that every pipe smoker should own.

There are a lot of wonderful pipe smoking books out there. The very first one I read was Hacker's famous volume (and despite that book I decided to keep smoking pipes in hopes that I'd not ever encounter others like him or like his book). Still, for a beginner, Hacker's is a decent read. Alfred Dunhill's book is a wonderful historical piece, historical in two senses. First, he delves into pipes, exploring them and tracing them back more thoroughly than anyone else. Second, Dunhill is himself an instrumental figure in modern pipe smoking; whether you love his pipe company's product or not, it is impossible to deny his place in pipe history. Newcomb's book is a delightful read, accessible, and the author stands as a wonderful advocate for our hobby. And the recently released Pipes:Artisans and Trademarks, by Jose Manuel Lopes, is a brilliant piece of research and an amazing accomplishment; the book serves as both a delightful coffee table work and also as a decent reference source alongside Who Made That Pipe. There are several other, similar, books which occupy places of honor in my personal library.

Ehwa's book, however, stands alone to me. Yes, it is somewhat dated, having been published in 1974. However, like a good piece of literature this book has stood the test of time. The writing is clean and enjoyable. The flow is wonderful. But what makes this book so important to me is that the REAL reason we all smoke pipes is the enjoyment of tobacco. At least I hope that is our reason; I love my pipes, I love to collect them, to look at them, to trade with others, but until I fill my pipe with tobacco it is merely an object. Once filled and lit, however, it becomes so much more. It is a source of relaxation, it is a source of pleasure, it is a provider of flavor which I enjoy. The addition of tobacco transforms a physical object into a mental one, transforms the experience of owning a pipe into an experience of, well, experiencing it!

I think I have a neophyte's pallate still, but I take pleasure in sharing what I can share about the experience I get from tobacco. Yet that experience must be put into words, and to put it into words a reviewer needs to be able to express sense in words. Doing so is not so easy. However, after reading Ehwa's book I learned worlds about making that transformation. Ehwa knew tobacco, and knew how to discuss tobacco; reading his book's section, "Part Three-Tobacco:The Special Herb" is a revealatory, almost religious experience. Here, he discusses curing, processing, types of cuts, and all of the essentials of taking the leaf from the field all of the way to the pipe. He discusses the different types of tobacco, and how the preparation of these different leaves so changes their basic character. But where the book excels is in his seemingly simple explanation of such terms as aroma, flavor, body, and smoothness. Reading this chapter was, for me, nothing short of essential. As an enjoyer of tobacco, this information took me from a smoker to a reviewer, enabling me to finally put into words what my mind already felt about each blend I smoked.

Everyone who enjoys the pipe and leaf should consider this book to be a "must read."

Very cool little book which covers the history of smoking from pre-Columbian times to the modern era. Interesting coverage of how tobacco is grown, sold and harvested. Also includes a good section on how to get started with pipe-smoking, going over everything from pipe type and shape to tobaccos which the beginner or expert might appreciate.

Something for everyone, whether a new smoker and one of many years' experience. Should be on every man's bookshelf.

The young lady who eventually became my wife gave this book to me a few months after we met thirty years ago. I not only still possess and occasionally read passages from it but I recently purchased a copy for a friend. The author is a no mere professional writer but a knowledgeable industry insider. The book is an intermediate level overview with a moderately heavy dose of history, artwork and photographs. Ehwa gave balanced treatments to briars, meerschaums and tobacco. Based on my 35 years of smoking a pipe, if you get only one pipe book, let it be this one.

Dear friends, my name is Fabio Jacinto, I'l like to know if I can pay one book when I just get it here in Brazil.

Thanks.

Imagine reading and finding that disease you have had or developed wasn't one you had chosen to have?. Imagine a substance freely sold nation wide and in fact world wide, totally subsidized by a humane society and government to wit U.S.A. and deliberatly concealed by both as one which the user 'chose' to kill them selves with being at last freely described as 'addictive'. Destroying the myth of over 75 years that Americans as well as citisizens of our entire Earth freely chose to use, therefor making the purveyors untouchable in the US Courts of Justice when brought to the bar of justice for redress admitting ipso facto Yes We Have Lied. Imagine your father dieing of lung cance (2 Packs of Pall Malls) your mother dieing of heart attack (2 Packs of Viceroys) and yourself now smoking Marlboros to the tune of 2 packs a day. Then behold your five children two of them now smoking. Three (12, 10, and 9) already exposed to the deadly toxins we have exposed them to. Read This Book!!. If your angry after reading it - your normal. If your not then you cannot read or lack comprehension. Sincerely Bob Jones, Sr. A Smoker since 14 years old now 55 years old and for al intents and purposes already dead in so far as the Big Tobacco Lobby is concerend and no help in sight unless Jerry Spence see's this and wants another cause to help some poor slave (me) with.

This book was obviously well researched, and contains an excellent summary of the litigation history basically starting with the initial leaked Merrill documents through the Mississippi settlement. There is also some coverage of the Caprione lawsuit. The books strength and value is how well it lays out the solid legal foundation for the current wave of lawsuits.

I liked the coverage of the Mississippi players, and this book provides great background to the current wave of lawsuits, it is incomplete by nature (since the lawsuits are still occurring), basically ending with Mike Moore's initial deal.

I was very disappointed in the coverage of the Minnesota players. Mr. Pringle dedicates one chapter to the Minnesota lawsuit, and treats them as bit players to (in his opinion) the central figures of Moore and Scruggs. There is also no coverage of the Texas nor Florida lawsuits. He also does not take the time to present the case from the Minnesota, Texas nor Florida points of view, using only Mississippi's legal case. In light of the recent settlement decisions, and document releases this is disappointing.

Since the issues are changing so quickly, much of the information in this book is getting dated, despite the new release status of the book. (The recently released 39,000 documents from the Minnesota trial occurred after this book was published for instance) However, the strongest elements of the state lawsuits are well laid out and I would consider buying the sequel.

For some time, I wondered why such an important chronicler of the uderprivileged people of the South ,who was recognized and read as comparable to Steinbeck,should be pushed aside to the point he is almost forgotten today.By the early 1960,s,between anthologies,novels,travelogues,and other nonfiction monographs,he had published thirty-eight books,and his domestic sales had reached 55 million copies.His works were translated into dozens of languages.He was among the world,s best selling authors.So,what happened?
Miller,s book shows how he was really not part of the "system" .It was the millions of readers who liked his work;thc critics couldn't stand him.
The critics and literary establishment won out and have pushed his work into obscurity...for now,anyway.
I am surprised that the author Miller, is so young. One day with the help of people like him,Caldwell may well become known again.
An excellent book if you want to know the whole story.

In the thirties critics acclaimed Erskine Caldwell as one of the most influential writers of his time. His books sold in the millions and his play, Tobacco Road (based on the novel), had an unprecedented record run across the nation. By the time the sixties emerged, Caldwell falls into obscurity, disdained by the critics and forgotten in the canon of southern literature.

Caldwell's Icarus-like rise to fame and descent into obscurity is the catalyst which inspired Dan Miller to explore one of the south's most prolific writers. What was behind the man who was so passionate in his work yet ended up destroying his professional career, his marriages and his relationships with his children.

The Journey from Tobacco Road takes a microscopic look at the forces which shaped and made Caldwell the writer that he is. Born of educated parents who were members of a fundamentalist presbyterian sect, we find a man full of contradictions. His parents had formal education. Their son never graduated from high school (or any school for that matter) and was a poor writer and reader. Their denomination, The Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church, was highly fundamental yet Caldwell's father had a great passion to confront the injustice of poor and Black people. His passion was transferred over to his son who became the extentsion of his cause for justice.

You will come across layers of complexities of Erskine who was controlling in all of his relationships with his wives and daughters. His obsessive need for control extended itself into the lives of his children to the point of abuse. Yet despite these tendancies Caldwell reached the hearts and minds of his readers in his depiction of the southern poor.

Miller has given the reader a revealing portrait of a man who was at the top of his literary popularity only to fall in obscurity. We are shown the elements of why this happened and can see that the same trap is set for writers who become popular but are spurned by the academic literary community. Caldwell's journey is an interesting one as he goes through the school of hard knocks only to rise a winner. Miller's biography is clear and concise. He doesn't put Caldwell on a pedestle but he reminds us this is an author who shouldn't be ignored. You will enjoy this biography.

Miller's concern about Caldwell's obscurity is not to be ignored. Recently I sat on a class in southern literature. When I read the syllabus, I saw the conspicuous absence of Caldwell's name. On approaching the teacher, I asked why and she immediately became embarassed and said she that Caldwell's name had mistakenly been dropped while editing the syllabus. Miller's book is certainly one we need to remind us of the life and contributions of this man of southern literature.

Dr. Miller tells the interesting truth behind one of the best selling authors of all time. Caldwell's life growing up poor in the deep south set the tone for what his work will become in the upcoming years. Miller, a student of David Donald (2 time pulitzer prize winner, "Look Homeward Angel:Bio of Thomas Wolfe", and official Lincoln biographer) at Harvard University, gives the reader a complete picture of an author who has been forgotten in time. Caldwell's gritty, often pornographic style has been belittled by todays critics, but Miller shows Caldwell was more than a pulp writer, he was a complex man, with a simple style. A must read.

What would you do if you learned that a multi-billion dollar corporation hid vital information from you (and the rest of the public) simply to enhance its bottom line? And what would you do if that information could have helped you save your life? Well, if you were Frank Freudberg's nightmare character Marntin Muntor, you'd set out on a murderous spree designed to give the tobacco industry a taste of its own medicine. In Gasp!, Muntor , a wire service editor dying of lung cancer from a lifetime of smoking, learns how to poison cigarettes with sodium cyanide and heads west from Philadelphia, leaving a trial of death and chaos. The FBI and a tobacco industry goon squad head out after him. But Muntor is smart and cautious as a cat, and he's tough to get a bead on. Eventually, the old it-takes-one to-catch-one truism comes into play and another semi-mad man (a tobacco company investigator) puts himself in Muntor's shoes. The problem is, the investigator then kind of sees Muntor's point. This book kept me so rapt, I literally couldn't put it down. There were actually times when (during a scene where the FBI and tobacco industry hired-gun almost capture Muntor) my heart was actually pounding. Read it

Gasp! is about a Philadelphia journalist who gets lung cancer from smoking. He decides to spend his remaining days expressing his gratitude to the tobacco industry -- by slipping cyanide-laced cigarettes into retail distribution. In the first week of tobacco terror, several hundred people die. You should see the panic -- especially in the tobacco firms' boardrooms when sales begin to slip! It doesn't take long for the journalist Martin Muntor to become one of the most sought-after men on the planet. The FBI and a tobacco industry goon squad are after Muntor -- who does outrageous things in part because he has nothing to lose. But when he tells a reporter (via pay-phone interview) that "the tobacco companies put things in cigarettes that kill people, so why can't I?", the public begins to see the dying man's point. What I want to know is when is the movie version of this book coming out? -- because I'll be first in line. I started this book one night at 10 when NYPD Blue was a re-run. At 5:30 the next morning, I finished it. One out of every 50 books I read so totally satisfying that I walk around euphoric for the next couple of days. Gasp! is one of those books. The dying journalist is an expert at manipulating the media, taunting the FBI and driving the tobacco industry mad. And Freudberg, the author, demonstrates an equal genius for hooking readers and keeping them hooked. (Reviewed by Thomas Cattalin, Books & Cinema Syndicate)

Gasp! opens as Martin Muntor prepares to exact vengeance upon the tobacco industry. A lifelong smoker, Muntor is suffering from terminal cancer.

After lacing hundreds of cigarettes with cyanide, Muntor sends the tampered packages to hundreds of  tobacco vendors through the country. Packaged as a tasty new cigarette from TobacCo, the vendors are eager to try out the new product. The body count rises as hundreds of people die a relatively quick, but ghastly, death.

The FBI heads the investigation to find Muntor and put an end to what has quickly become a national panic about cigarette smoking. In addition, fictional tobacco giant TobacCo's chief of security Tommy Rhoads searches for Muntor.

Quit-smoking programs and anti-smoking campaigns are on the rise, cigarette sales are declining, and TobacCo's stock is sinking fast. Rhoads is offered a huge bonus to solve this case quickly. But Rhoads doesn't know what he is in for, and he doesn't realize that he is in the middle of a deadly cover-up and double-cross at TobacCo. By the novel's end, we wind up questioning whether or not Martin Muntor is the real villain of this story.

I was in ATF agent from April 1972 until I retired in January 1997, serving as both a field agent and a manager. Because of this experience and knowledge, I am convinced that this will be the best book ever written about the history of ATF. It is MUST reading for anyone who is or ever has been an ATF agent. It is also must reading for anyone who is seriously interested in understanding why ATF is as it is, and how it got that way. Among other things, it provides the most concise, thorough, accurate, and comprehensive overall account of the tragedy at Waco that I have ever read or heard. For this alone, it is worth reading. And this opinion includes my own complete study of (1) the Treasury Dept.'s own report on Waco, to wit, the Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, aka David Koresh, which is for sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, and (2) hours before the television listening to the complete live Congressional house subcommittee hearings on Waco (incidentally, completely confusing and misleading, and an absolute failure at discovering facts - proof once again of Congress' repeated failure to get almost anything right). So read the Treasury Dept.'s report if you want (it is actually worthwhile), or waste your time watching Congress, but if you really want to know, read Vizzard's book. But the book is about much more than just Waco. Read it and learn the real source of ATF's strength (it's agents, not its management), and why, because of these agents, with their "determination to perform in spite of inadequate resources, training, policy, leadership, and political support", ATF has been (at least in the past, but probably not now or in the future) been able to successfully compete with the FBI, an agency that was "far larger, better known, more prestigious, and infinitely better funded". And learn (if you read carefully) why this superior performance is doomed not to continue in the future. If you are an ATF Agent, with the traditional love/hate relationship that most agents have with the agency, this book will speed you again through all of the conflicting emotions you have experienced on the job. And even if you are one of ATF's most severe critics, you will learn many things you did not know or even consider knowing before reading this book, and hopefully you will even begin to understand that in many instances you have been criticizing things that do not deserve criticism, and failing to criticize things that do. If you care at all about ATF, pro or con, READ THIS BOOK!

The author presents the reader with an inside view of a law enforcement agency that has many unheralded successes and a few well publicized imperfections. The ATF is well respected by members of law enforcement and despised by many anti-gun control advocates and is often the subject of curiosity by those not directly alinged with either position

What has not been known until Vizzard authored this book, even by many of it's own employees is the influences of not only other government agencies but the anti-gun control organizations as well as party politics in the development of polices and missions by the leaders in this Bureau.

I spent nearly a quarter of a century as an agent with ATF and it's predecessor organization. I arrived on the scene (1959) as the heyday of liquor enforcement was fading. I was assigned to Bureau headquarters during the years when the Gun Control Act of 1968, and the Explosives Control Act of 1970, were enacted into law. I served in various managment positions in Washington, DC and later spent time on the firing line in two district offices (Detroit and Louisville) as the Assistant and finally as the Special Agent in Charge. My last two years with ATF before my retirement in 1983, were spent working on the streets and I received first hand knowledge of what it meant to be a "street agent" operating under the rules established as the result of the influence of internal and external politics.

The author has managed to capture the nuances of the pressures involved in enforcing laws that are not popular with segments of our society that have political clout. Politics are not limited to outside the agency and Mr. Vizzard has analyzed these as well. This book should be required reading for all special agents now on the job, former agents will be surprised to learn just how little they really knew about what was happening behind the scenes while working for ATF, all persons interested in government operations and even those persons who take umbrage of the law! s enforced by this battered but still proud agency will be impressed with the contents of "In The Cross Fire."

I was an ATF Agent and manager from April 1972 until Jan. 1997. Based upon my knowledge and experience, I am convinced this will be the best book ever written about ATF's history and development thru 1997. It is MUST reading for anyone who has ever been an ATF Agent, or anyone who is seriously interested in understanding ATF and how it got to be the way it is.

Among other things, it provides the most concise, thorough, accurate and comprehensive account of the tragedy at Waco that most readers will ever review. For this alone it is worth reading (and this opinion includes my own study of (1) the Treasury Dept.'s own report on The Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, AKA David Koresh, which is for sale by the U.S. Gov't Printing Office, and is well worth reading in its own right; and (2) hours before the TV in 1995 watching the House Congressional subcommittee hearing on Waco, which was completely inadequate, confusing, misleading and an absolute failure at discovering the truth - proof once again that politicians fail to get almost anything right). So if you really want to build your understanding of the events at Waco, read this book.

And the book is about much more than just Waco. It tells the real source of ATF's strengths (its agents, not its management), and why, because of these agents, with their "determination to perform in spite of inadequate resources, training, policy, leadership, and political support", ATF has been able (at least in the past, but probably not now or in the near future) to successfully compete with the FBI, an agency that was/is "far larger, better known, more prestigious, and infinitely better funded". And if you read carefully, you might even learn why this superior performance is doomed not to continue.

If you are an ATF Agent, with the typical love/hate relationship that most agents have with ATF, this book will speed you again through all of the conflicting emotions you have felt. And if you are one of ATF's critics, you will learn many things you did not know or even consider knowing before reading this book, and hopefully will begin to understand that in many instances you have criticized things that do not deserve criticism, and have failed to criticize the things that do. If you care at all about ATF, pro or con, READ THIS BOOK!

I found this book at the library while I was quitting smoking and read it over a few days. The writer clearly has deep contempt and hatred for the tobacco industry, so if you are looking for a detached objective look you won't find it here. It made me very motivated to quit smoking so I have to give it five stars :-)

Hilts holds up to the light what the tobacco industry kept hidden in the darkest of places. Hilts explains how they, the tobacco industry, target our youth. They (tobacco industry) know that to get people hooked on tobacco, they must introduce them to tobacco before they hit the 18 - 21 age. If people aren't smoking by the time they reach 21 they aren't likely to start.

It takes 3 years of smoking before the user becomes addicted to nicotine. Big tobacco panders to the 13 - 15 age, knowing that those kids will be hooked and faithful to their product by the time they're 18.

I don't even have the time to list all the ways the tobacco industry plays mindgames with our youth. If the children don't take up smoking the industry will die shortly after their current customers die.

Hilts explains how they lowered the "tar" and increased the nicotine, while hawking the low-tar product as "safer".

This is a frightening book.

It begs one major question.

How can any industry knowingly kill millions of people in the past, conspire to kill millions more in the future, yet not be charged with Murder in the First Degree?

Philip Hilts has an ax to grind and he does so with determination. However, the writing tends to be repitious, pedantic and just plaing boring. There are some lively parts, particularly the testimony he includes from Jeffrey Wigand, which the movie "The Insider" was based on. The skillful deceit of the tobacco companies is also fully exposed and some parts are fascinating. If only he wouldn't keep making the same points over and over. Basically, if anyone if doing a paper on smoking as an addiction this book would be a good reference.