An Atmospheric History of Smoking in Modern Britain - (New Directions in Social and Cultural History) by Ivan Markovic (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book studies the historiography of smoking in modern Britain, with a focus on the social, cultural, and emotional aspects of the practice.

Centring on four specific moments in modern British history; the turn of the 20th century, the Second World War, the 1980s, and the mid-2000s, An Atmospheric History of Smoking not only traces the history of tobacco use, but explores the cultural significance of - and attitudes toward - smoking. Markovic combines oral histories with archival research and artefact analysis, in order to evoke the unique social atmospheres surrounding smoking at each of these key periods within British history.

By analysing factors such as the encouragement of the practice as part of Home Front 'mood management' during the Second World War, or the impact of smoking on 1980s workplace relations, this book highlights how the role of smoking in public spheres has undergone significant change throughout the 20th century. Constructing the 2007 UK ban on smoking in public places as a turning point for the practice in the British cultural imagination, Markovic examines how smoking has both been deemed 'out of place', and yet still persists today.

Review Quotes

This excellent and engaging book takes up a smoking - a 'quintessentially atmospheric' practice. Working through an ephemeral sensory substance - tobacco smoke - its careful archival work opens new conceptual insight for studies of atmospheres. It reminds us that much of 20th century everyday life was made sense of in a smoky haze.
Shanti Sumartojo, Associate Professor, Monash University, Australia

About the Author

Ivan Markovic is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Durham, UK.