Book review "The Story of Tobacco in America"

Book review "The Story of Tobacco in America"

This book review, authored by James A. Sartain, analyzes "The Story of Tobacco in America," written by Joseph C. Robert, a Professor of History at the University of Richmond and former President of Hampden-Sydney College. The author of the article traces the major points of the book, starting with Robert's history of tobacco in Colonial America and how it influenced economics and politics. Despite growing concerns about the unhealthiness of tobacco, it became an influential product in Virginia's economics. Robert notes that the College of William and Mary, benefitted from a tax on tobacco that went directly to its founding. The book continues into post-Revolution and post-war America, when much of the tobacco crop had been "looted" by anti-trust laws. The review also features historic advertisements for tobacco products. Neither reviewer nor author mention the production of tobacco, historically a slave-produced cash crop.

p. 7, 39

Alumni Bulletin, University of Richmond

Spring 1967

RG 6

Virginia Baptist Historical Society