Menu
Idea

tobacco industry

21
Filter by:

Filter by published date

A woman spraying DDT aerosol on her windows to keep insects at bay, 1955.

DDT Is Still With Us, 50 Years Since It Was Banned

Scientists have found toxic levels of the chemical at large. And some groups are making the case to produce even more.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on May 31, 2022
Book cover of Pushing Cool, featuring a photo of a cigarette ad on the side of a building.

Selling Menthol: On Keith Wailoo’s “Pushing Cool”

A history of the menthol cigarette and its effects on Black people.
by Vesper North via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 31, 2021
Illustration of a smoker with coins instead of puffs of smoke coming from his cigarette

Pinhookers and Pets: Inventing the Non-Smoker

Who needs a public health system when sickness is a personal failure?
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on February 18, 2021
partner

Health Risks of Vaping: Lessons From the Battle With Big Tobacco

Like cigarette manufacturers decades ago, e-cigarette makers have pitched their products as fun and safe. But nobody knows what the risks are.
via Retro Report on November 17, 2020

How War Made the Cigarette

A new book explores the tangled politics behind a global addiction.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on September 25, 2019
Mural depicting bluesman John Dee Holeman and friends playing on the front porch of a house.

The Living Legacy of the Piedmont Blues

The music that grew out of Durham's tobacco manufacturing plants influenced some of the most widely recorded musicians of the last 65 years—and still does.
by Marc Farinella via The Assembly on July 14, 2023
African American mineworkers holding the American flag and a sign reading Join Our Union

Black and White Workers and Communists Built a “Civil Rights Unionism” Under Jim Crow

Today’s activists should look to North Carolina's black and white tobacco workers, who organized a union and went on strike in the teeth of the Jim Crow South.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Jacobin on October 3, 2022

Marijuana Reform Should Focus On Inequality

When regulators dictate who grows a cash crop, they can spread the wealth—or help the rich get richer.
by Sarah Milov via The Atlantic on October 5, 2019

Debunking the Capitalist Cowboy

Business schools fetishize innovation, but their heroes succeeded due to manipulation of corporate law, not personal brilliance.
by Nan Enstad via Boston Review on March 20, 2019
Drawing of two laborers in a vast agricultural field with a farmhouse in the background.

A Family From High Plains

Sappony tobacco farmers across generations, and across state borders, when North Carolina and Virginia law diverged on tribal recognition, education, and segregation.
by Nick Martin via Splinter on August 2, 2018
Black and white photograph of workers of various affiliations march together at a 1946 May Day parade in New York City, holding signs about "world labor unity."

Welcome to Operation Dixie, the Most Ambitious Unionization Attempt in the U.S.

Southern segregation, racism and a militarized police meant the plan was destined to fail.
by Meagan Day via Medium on May 8, 2018
partner

Grass Roots Activists Won the War on Smoking. Can They Win the War on Climate Change?

They can if they study the tobacco playbook.
by Sarah Milov via Made By History on June 29, 2017
Day laborer pumping up tire on tractor on large farm near Ralls, Texas, 1939.
partner

Stories of the Land: Diverse Agricultural Histories in the U.S.

An exhibit featuring public radio and television programs broadcast over 65 years that explore American agricultural life.
by Mariah E. Marsden via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on July 29, 2024
Two women baking in a kitchen using a gas stove.

The Forgotten Gas Stove Wars

We’ve been fighting over gas stoves for decades.
by Rebecca Leber via Vox on February 5, 2023
Picture of Joe Manchin

Joe Manchin’s Deep Corporate Ties

An underexamined aspect of Manchin’s pro-business positions in the Senate is his early membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council.
by Dan Kaufman via The New Yorker on October 26, 2021
Water contaminated with arsenic, lead and zinc flows from a pipe out of the Lee Mountain mine and into a holding pond
partner

Spin Doctors Have Shaped the Environmentalism Debate for Decades

“Green” public relations work has flown below the radar but made a huge impact.
by Melissa Aronczyk via Made By History on February 21, 2021
Person getting a vaccination.
partner

A Coronavirus Vaccine Can’t Come at the Expense of Fighting the Virus Now

Government investment into a cancer vaccine had drawbacks.
by Robin Wolfe Scheffler via Made By History on July 24, 2020
Stan and Mardi Timm show off Johnson Smith novelties they’ve collected. Stan wears X-Ray Spex and holds a Tark Electric Razor. Mardi wears a sailor’s hat that says “Kiss Me Honey I Won’t Bite” and holds a Little Gem Lung Tester and Bust Developer.

Fun Delivered: World’s Foremost Experts on Whoopee Cushions and Silly Putty Tell All

The Timms provide the history behind their collection of 20th century mail-order novelty items.
by Lisa Hix via Collectors Weekly on March 17, 2020

Nonsmokers, Unite!

The complicated privilege of forming a new constituency.
by Sarah Milov via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 2, 2019
Painting depicting Jamestown Fort under construction.

Learning from Jamestown

The violent catastrophe of the Virginia colonists is the best founding parable of American history.
by Brianna Rennix via Current Affairs on March 15, 2019

What The Industry Knew About Sugar's Health Effects, But Didn't Tell Us

A new report says the sugar industry pulled the plug on evidence linking sugar consumption to heart disease.
by Allison Aubrey via NPR on November 21, 2017

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History