Approaching tobacco from the perspective of users, producers, and
objectors, Smoking under the Tsars provides an unparalleled view of
Russia's early adoption of smoking. Tricia Starks introduces us to
the addictive, nicotine-soaked Russian version of the cigarette-the
papirosa-and the sensory, medical, social, cultural, and gendered
consequences of this unique style of tobacco use. Starting with the
papirosa's introduction in the nineteenth century and its
foundation as a cultural and imperial construct, Starks situates
the cigarette's emergence as a mass-use product of revolutionary
potential. She discusses the papirosa as a moral and medical
problem, tracks the ways in which it was marketed as a liberating
object, and concludes that it has become a point of increasing
conflict for users, reformers, and purveyors. The heavily
illustrated Smoking under the Tsars taps into bountiful material in
newspapers, industry publications, etiquette manuals, propaganda
posters, popular literature, memoirs, cartoons, poetry, and
advertising. Starks frames her history within the latest
scholarship in imperial and early Soviet history and public health,
anthropology and addiction studies. The result is an ambitious
social and cultural exploration of the interaction of institutions,
ideas, practice, policy, consumption, identity, and the body.
Starks has reconstructed how Russian smokers experienced,
understood, and presented their habit in all its biological,
psychological, social, and sensory inflections, providing the
reader with incredible images and a unique application of
anthropology and sensory analysis to the experience of tobacco
dependency.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!