Public Opinion, Public Policy, and Smoking

The book...offer[s] a nice history of the changes in Americans' awareness of the health risks of cigarette smoking and some of the major events that have occurred over the past century and a half. It also includes an extensive and detailed bibliography. * Public Opinion Quarterly * Marshall's book is especially innovative in focusing on what the public knew or believed and how public opinion shifted over time. Other recent historical accounts of this period have focused largely on scientific knowledge and on what scientists, health officials, and the tobacco industry knew or believed. . . Marshall's account is optimistic. * Bulletin of the History of Medicine * A highly readable, informed, and superbly analyzed study of changing mass attitudes towards smoking and the impact these have had on policy formation and implementation. A critical health, economic, and social issue addressed by one of the country's top healthcare and public opinion experts. It sets the standard for the field. An outstanding contribution. -- William Crotty, Northeastern University Thomas Marshall's Public Opinion, Public Policy, and Smoking examines changing public attitudes toward smoking, as well as the role of public opinion in the formulation of tobacco control policy. By analyzing over fifty years of public opinion poll data in relationship to policy formation, Marshall demonstrates that public opinion has played a critical role in the development of tobacco control policy. This highly readable book should be of great interest to all who care about tobacco policy, as well as anyone who wants to understand public health policymaking. -- Wendy E. Parmet, Northeastern University Thomas Marshall literally draws on thousands of public and private opinion polls conducted since the 1930s to carefully explain what Americans believed about the harm of cigarette smoking and what the government should do about it. His recurring finding is that mass public opinion does matter in smoking-related policy-making. Because Public Opinion, Public Policy, and Smoking is so well argued, thorough, and evenhanded, I expect it be the go-to book about public opinion and tobacco control policy. -- Charles D. Hadley, University of New Orleans