Cigarettes, Inc.: An Intimate History of Corporate ImperialismTraditional narratives of capitalist change often rely on the myth of the willful entrepreneur from the global North who transforms the economy and delivers modernity—for good or ill—to the rest of the world. With Cigarettes, Inc., Nan Enstad upends this story, revealing the myriad cross-cultural encounters that produced corporate life before World War II. In this startling account of innovation and expansion, Enstad uncovers a corporate network rooted in Jim Crow segregation that stretched between the United States and China and beyond. Cigarettes, Inc. teems with a global cast—from Egyptian, American, and Chinese entrepreneurs to a multiracial set of farmers, merchants, factory workers, marketers, and even baseball players, jazz musicians, and sex workers. Through their stories, Cigarettes, Inc. accounts for the cigarette’s spectacular rise in popularity and in the process offers nothing less than a sweeping reinterpretation of corporate power itself. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Bright Leaf Cigarette in the Age of Empire | 16 |
2 Corporate Enchantment | 52 |
3 The Bright Leaf Tobacco Network | 86 |
4 Making a Transnational Cigarette Factory Labor Force | 120 |
5 Of Camels and Ruby Queens | 154 |
6 The Intimate Dance of Jazz and Cigarettes | 187 |
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Common terms and phrases
advertising African American American Tobacco band BAT’s became brand bright leaf British cabarets Canaday capitalism China Chinese cigarette City clubs Collection consumers corporate created culture dance developed Duke Duke University Durham East economic Egyptian Empire employees especially experience fact factory farmers foreign Frank H gained Ginter girls global Gregory Hand Hattie hired History imperial important industry interview James jazz John Pope labor live London Lucky Strike machine managers manufacturing March Movement North Carolina offered played political popular position practices production race Radio Reidsville relationship Report Richmond rise Ruby Queen segregation servants Shanghai shows significant smoking social South Southern story success Thomas tion Tobacco Company took union United University Press Virginia Western women workers World Yongtaihe York Zheng
Bibliographic information
| Title | Cigarettes, Inc.: An Intimate History of Corporate Imperialism |
| Author | Nan Enstad |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press, 2018 |
| ISBN | 022653331X, 9780226533315 |
| Length | 347 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Economic History Business & Economics / Industries / Agribusiness Business & Economics / International / Economics History / General Technology & Engineering / History |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |