Linder on State-Level Cigarette Regulation the 1880s

Library of Congress

Marc Linder, University of Iowa College of Law, has published as a free ebook a massively researched history of cigarette regulation in Iowa (with extensive forays into other states) from the 1880s to the very recent past.  The larger work is entitled "Inherently Bad, and Bad Only": A History of State-Level Regulation of Cigarettes and Smoking in the United States Since the 1880s.  Now available is volume 1, An In-Depth National Study Embedding Ultra-Thick Description of a Representative State (Iowa).

The book shows that in two thirds of the states Americans did in fact "clamor for, oppose, debate, enact, litigate, live (and die) under, comply with, enforce, violate, repeal, celebrate, and mourn the disappearance of" outright smoking bans from 1889 and 1927.  The principal parts of the book are as follows:

1.  THE FIRST WAVE OF ADULT PROHIBITORY LEGISLATION: STATE MEASURES TO BAN CIGARETTE SALES AND PUBLIC CIGARETTE SMOKING: 1889-1899

2.  THE RISE AND FALL OF THE STATEWIDE PROHIBITION OF SELLING CIGARETTES IN IOWA: 1880s-1921

3.  THE CONTEXT OF STATE ANTI-CIGARETTE AND ANTI-SMOKING LEGISLATIVE TRENDS IN THE 1910s AND 1920s BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER REPEAL IN IOWA

4.  CIGARETTE SALES LICENSURE AND TAXATION IN IOWA DURING THE PERIOD OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE SMOKING: 1921 TO THE 1960s

5.  THE INCIPIENT NATIONAL MOVEMENT TO AVOID SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE IN THE 1970s

6.  THE STRUGGLE IN IOWA FOR ANTI-PUBLIC SMOKING BANS: 1970s TO 2008

Quite apart from the importance of its subject, "Inherently Bad and Bad Only" is significant as an example of the dissemination of research that would be very expensive to publish in print.