For your own good
Subtitle: the anti-smoking crusade and the tyranny of public health
By: Jacob Sullum
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 338
ISBN-13: 9780684827360; 9780684871158
Subjects: Antismoking movement; Government policy; Passive smoking; Legislation & jurisprudence; Smoking Cessation; Health Policy; Public opinion; Public Opinion; Tobacco Smoke Pollution; Smoking; Popular Works
Description: The tobacco controversy is usually portrayed as a battle between selfless defenders of public health and greedy merchants of death. In For Your Own Good, journalist Jacob Sullum argues that such a view conceals the true nature of the crusade for a smoke-free society. As Sullum demonstrates, this struggle is not about the behavior of corporations; it's about the behavior of individuals. It is an attempt by one group of people to impose their tastes and preferences on another.

For Your Own Good shows that long before Philip Morris or R. J. Reynolds existed, tobacco's opponents condemned smoking as disgusting, immoral, addictive, unhealthy, and inconsiderate. In recent decades, they have used scientific evidence that smoking is hazardous to enlist the state in their crusade, arguing that the government has an obligation to discourage behavior that might lead to disease or injury.

Given this country's tradition of limited government, however, Americans tend to be skeptical of this argument. Sullum justifies their misgivings, noting that achieving a "smoke-free society" in a nation where tens of millions choose to smoke is necessarily an exercise in tyranny.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-327) and index.
Table of contents: title: From Devil's Weed to Soldier's Friend --; title: Appropriate Remedial Action --; title: Coughing Cowboys --; title: Vice Charge --; title: Smoke Alarm --; title: Try, Try Again --; title: Little White Slavers --; title: Doctor's Orders --; title: Appendix: Ten Myths of the Anti-Smoking Movement.