As in the best historical works, a single aspect of the past is able to illuminate a very large picture....Written in a brilliant and captivating style while maintaining strict methodological rigor, this work is a fine example of cultural history and, at the same time, a model of style and method.
Emanuela Scarpellini
American Historical Review
Fumo tells a fascinating tale about smoking, health, and risk during Italy's cigarette century. Ipsen effectively integrates a variety of approaches and source material into crafting a narrative that concentrates on those aspects of Italy's tobacco history that are uniquely Italian, yet situated within a broader context, as illustrated by references to developments in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany...scholars interested in the histories of Italy, smoking, and public health will find Fumo a valuable contribution to their respective fields of study.
Kraig Larkin
EuropeNow
A compelling picture of how one of the most widely consumed intoxicants of the twentieth century shaped Italian social life and cultural expression.
Mary Neuburger
University of Texas at Austin.
An intoxicating combination of cultural, social, economic, gender, and political history, Fumo tells the fascinating history of smoking in Italy, providing new insights into Italy's transformation over the course of the twentieth century. Delightfully told, it is, like the cigarette itself, hard to put down once begun.
David I. Kertzer
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini
Many histories of smoking are either overly judgmental of the tobacco industry or they give too much weight to the sublime qualities of smoking. Admirably, Ipsen remains neutral in his reporting of smoking's history in Italy, not wishing to judge or rationalize.
Carol Helstosky
The Journal of Modern History
Carl Ipsen, Professor of History at Indiana University, has written an absorbing social history of modern Italy as seen through the nation's smoking habits...Much of Carl Ipsen's diverting, well-researched book discusses the role of cigarettes in Italian literature.
Ian Thomson
The Times Literary Supplement