The first comprehensive history of Bright Leaf tobacco culture of any state to appear in fifty years, this book explores tobacco's influence in South Carolina from its beginnings in the colonial period to its heyday at the turn of the century, the impact of the Depression, the New Deal, and World War II, and on to present-day controversies about health risks due to smoking. The book examines the tobacco growers' struggle against the monopolistic practices of manufacturers, explains the failures of the cooperative reform movement and the Hoover administration's farm policies, and describes how Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal rescued southern agriculture from the Depression and forged a lasting and successful partnership between tobacco farmers and government. The technological revolutions of the post-World War II era and subsequent tobacco economy hardships due to increasingly negative public perception of tobacco use are also highlighted. The book details the roles and motives of key individuals in the development of tobacco culture, including firsthand experiences related by farmers and warehousemen, and offers informed speculations on the future of tobacco culture. Long Green allows readers to better understand the full significance of this cash crop in the history and economy of South Carolina and the American South.
"This is the fullest and most thoughtful treatment of the changing fortunes of tobacco in one of the richest tobacco areas in the United States and, as such, a valuable and timely contribution to consideration of elements of the background of a critical national policy issue."
David Moltke-Hansen
"A comprehensive history of Bright Leaf tobacco culture that explores both the good and the bad. . . . A fresh view of a southern heritage that been instrumental to both the economy and the attitudes of the region."
North Carolina Historical Review
"A thorough study of the structure of South Carolina tobacco farming, with ample attention to the elites who promoted it and the manufacturers who profited most from it."
