The books
The Art of Suppression:
Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition since 1800
The prohibition of alcohol in the USA was a notorious fiasco. The War on Drugs has been a deadly failure. Bans on alternative nicotine products keep people smoking cigarettes. Attempts to suppress legal highs result in more drugs hitting the market.
Prohibition doesn't work but the world is filled with prohibitionists. Why?
Christopher Snowdon's new history of prohibitions is a panoramic study of how bans begin, who instigates them and why they fail. It is a story of moral panics, vested interests and popular hysteria, driven by people who believe that utopia is only ever one ban away.
Includes:
The campaign for alcohol prohibition in the USA
The worldwide ban on opium and the dawn of the War on Drugs
The curious case of the European Union's ban on oral tobacco (snus)
The 1920s crusade to suppress drinking worldwide
The prohibition of Ecstasy and the rise of designer drugs
The enduring appeal of prohibitionist policies today
Published on October 10 2011 by Little Dice; 267 pages - £11.99/$19.99
Order The Art of Suppression from Waterstones, Amazon (UK), Amazon (USA),
Barnes and Noble or direct from the author.
The Spirit Level Delusion:
Fact-checking the Left's new theory of everything
Do Cubans live longer than Americans? Are Scandinavians happier than the British? Do Oscar winners live longer than other actors? Does capitalism cause mental illness? Does inequality lead to murder? Would higher taxes make us slimmer, more trusting and more charitable?
The Spirit Level Delusion shines the light of reason on some of the extraordinary claims made in favour of big government in the twenty-first century. Several books (The Spirit Level, Happiness and Affluenza amongst others) have called for a radical shift in power from the individual to the state based on the supposedly devastating effects of wealth, economic growth and inequality. By examining all the available evidence, Christopher Snowdon tests the theory that 'more equal' countries are healthier, happier and more successful.
Through a sober assessment of the facts - including some inconvenient truths - The Spirit Level Delusion shows that the theory not only lacks empirical support but also fails the basic test of believability.
Published by Monday Books - £8.99/$15.99. Various reviews available here.
Second edition now available on the Kindle.
Or buy in original paperback from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking
Christopher Snowdon's critically acclaimed history of the battle against tobacco. Published by Little Dice; 415 pages - £12.99/$25.00
Read the review from The Economist.
Read the review from Spiked Review of Books.
Read all reviews...
..."thoroughly deserves a place in the bestseller lists"..."Fascinating"..."Extensive research, and extremely well-written"..."an important book"..."consistently entertaining"..."one of the most important books I have ever read"..."nothing short of remarkable"..."Essential reading"..."riveting"..."Simply stunning"..."a superb read"..."a fully deserved five stars"..."a damn good read"..."Magnificent"..."Highly recommended and lively written"...
Order Velvet Glove, Iron Fist from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: The blog
Velvet Glove, Iron Fist
Live since September 2009, Christoher Snowdon's blog covers politics, prohibitionists and the gradual erosion of liberty in the West. It's more fun than it sounds.
Tobacco-related miscellany
BBC and Department of Health accused of "gross exaggeration"
Tobacco expert scoffs at BBC's 'shisha worse than cigarettes' story.
The Dark Market
E-mails released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal how the Department of Health and ASH co-operated to swing the Lords debate on the tobacco display ban.
'Hateful, arrogant vindictiveness'
After 21 years in the anti-smoking movement, David Goerlitz speaks out against the extremism and corruption he sees all around him.
Listen to this remarkable interview here.
Read the author's article about Goerlitz at Spiked.
But he seemed so reasonable!
John Banzhaf formed ASH in 1968 to monitor anti-smoking ads on television. His descent into extremism over the last 41 years provides a classic illustration of the 'slippery slope.'
A global prison?
An exclusive with the tobacco expert Kamal Chaouachi on the subject of hookah smoking.
"I was slow to understand another poster advertised by the World Health Organisation. At first, I did not react because I believed it represented a bubble (of oxygen, of course). Then, one day, I realised that it clearly shows the Earth with not a single spot left on it for smoking. I wondered: Is this what they are eventually aiming for, a global prison?"
'The Anti-Smoking Movement'
The author spoke at the TICAP conference in Brussels on the 27th January.
Read the transcript of the speech here.
A report on the whole event can be read here.
As two journals publish articles which compare sceptics of the Scottish heart miracle to Holocaust deniers, the author looks at the anti-scientific concept of denialism.
A version of this article appeared in Sp!ked.
Second-hand science
Velvet Glove is pleased to present Robert Wagner's interesting take on the Scottish heart miracle.
Nuns, prostitutes, witches and toads
The strange case of cervical cancer. For over 200 years researchers were led up blind alleys in search of the cause of this disease. Time and again, association was mistaken for causation. We now know the truth and yet tall tales continue to be told about smoking causing cervical cancer.
Scottish heart attack study - the final verdict
Official statistics from NHS Scotland show that heart-related admissions did not fall by 17% - or anything close to 17% - after the smoking ban.
Cartman takes on the anti-smokers
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talk about why they wrote an episode attacking the anti-smoking movement.
What would the great libertarian John Stuart Mill have made of the modern anti-smoking crusade?
In October 2007, the anti-smoking pressure group Action on Smoking and Health released a press release which dismissed claims that pubs and bingo halls would see a drop in trade as a result of the smoking ban as 'myths'. This article examines how credible ASH's position is six months on. This topic is revisited here.
Publish and Be Damned looks at the claim that heart attacks fell dramatically in Scotland following the smoking ban. Updated here: Scottish Heart Miracle Unspun.
For those who might be interested, I have compiled a full, annotated list of every passive smoking study ever conducted involving women married to smokers. 64 studies are assessed in total, most of which can be downloaded in full here or here
You can contact the author by e-mail at author@velvetgloveironfist.com