In this sturdy if sometimes long-winded account of tobacco in America, high-toned moralizing on the plight of the ``millions enslaved by nicotine'' accompanies level-headed analysis of the evils of cigarettes. We are ``creatures of folly and victims of our darker nature,'' writes journalist Kluger (The Paper, 1986, etc.), citing as evidence the fact that humans have embraced tobacco and die in appalling numbers because of it. Kluger takes the reader on a historical tour of tobacco, ``one of the treasured and unanticipated gifts of the Old World to the New,'' before settling into an account of tobacco production and marketing in 20th-century America. He is a master at ferreting out intriguing information—by 1891, he notes, cigarette makers were clearing a 27 percent profit margin, an investor's dream that remains constant today—and he has the eye of a John McPhee for piling on data to arrive at a point. That talent sometimes threatens to undo Kluger's narrative; he takes a couple of hundred pages, for instance, to document medicine's quest to determine that cigarette smoking is unhealthy. Bent on exposing the evil of cigarette industrialists, however, the author produces ample rope with which they can hang themselves; one villain among many is Robert Heimann, the head of American Brands in the 1970s, who confessed that his company ``had never bothered'' to assemble a panel of doctors or scientists to advise on the potential health hazards of cigarettes, but who nonetheless tried to be a good corporate citizen by not dumping toxic chemicals into the James River. Rich in long asides on taxation, federal regulation, power politics, and the complexities of international trade, Kluger's endlessly interesting book closes with a discussion of recent liability lawsuits brought against cigarette manufacturers, especially Philip Morris, the greatest villain in Kluger's gallery, and of the ever-lengthening ``shadow of litigation, that chronic potential spoiler of their financial well-being.'' Put this in your pipe and prepare for a richly rewarding read.
Pub Date: April 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-394-57076-6
Page Count: 832
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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