The book of the historian Igor Bogdanov would be best called «The Amazing Adventures of Tobacco.»
The book of the historian Igor Bogdanov would be best called «The Amazing Adventures of Tobacco.» In fact, the history of this plant, taken by Europeans from America and at first considered healing, and now taking the place of almost the main enemy of the human race, most of all resembles an adventure novel. The author traces the history of tobacco smoking in great detail: from the appearance of the first tobacco factories to the semantic role of cigarettes in Soviet films, from the use of snuff to hand-rolled cigarettes made from fallen leaves, which were smoked by residents of besieged Leningrad. Tobacco in Bogdanov’s book becomes a kind of prism that allows the author (and the reader along with him) to see the world of human habits and customs in a non-trivial perspective.
UFO, 280 p.