How personally responsible are smokers for their nicotine addiction? As it turns out, not very.
Here's a "must watch" video clip of a 2007 presentation given by Dr. Allen Brandt at Cody's Books store in San Francisco, describing his investigative and clarifying research into the tobacco industry.
Watch the entire presentation on Fora TV
Allan Brandt researched The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America, and after doing so for twenty years, he has become one of the top expert witnesses for tobacco-related state and federal cases.
In 2004 Brandt took the stand as an expert witness for two full days of cross-examination in the case of U.S. vs. Phillip Morris. The judge's opinion referenced Brandt's testimony nearly 200 times and for the first time ever tobacco companies were found to be in violation of Federal racketeering statutes.
Now, in The Cigarette Century, Brandt presents the definitive history of the cigarette, both as the ultimate cultural icon and as the produce that shaped US agriculture, big business, medicine, and regulatory policies in the 20th century.
Making extensive use of previously secret corporate documents which became available in the last decade as a result of litigation, Brandt offers critical analysis of the cigarette controversy and how the industry used sophisticated public relations to invent a modern "disinformation" campaign.
As of January 1, 2008, Allan Brandt is Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and holds a joint appointment in the Department of the History of Science.
