Snowdon Book Is a Must-read

Author Christopher Snowdon has given us a sneak preview of his book Velvet Glove, Iron Fist, as it nears completion. It’s a must-read for all. Christopher Snowdon’s website offers selected chapters for viewing on the internet. These are most intriguing and we can now say that the complete manuscript meets with highest expectations. FORCES recommends Velvet Glove, Iron Fist, expected to be published next year, to smokers and non-smokers alike. We are, by now, all affected by the ever-expanding nanny state, internationally at this point.

This is an important book. Privately published offerings such as Michael J. McFadden’s Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains and Vincent-Riccardo Di Pierri’s Rampant Anti-smoking Signifies Grave Danger: Materialism Out of Control have previously provided crucially valuable perspectives, while Jacob Sullum’s lauded For Your Own Good: The Anti-smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health warned a wider audience of a growing menace. Snowdon’s book, coming five to ten years after these, confirms all their predictions of unceasing regulatory encroachment into the present, while providing historical perspectives on Puritanical and prohibitionist movements of the past, wrapping all into a compelling view of the “anti” hysteria afflicting our times. Popular awareness of this threat, as the burgeoning activism against it chronicled here at FORCES attests, has finally taken root, and now grows exponentially.

Historian Snowdon’s treatise can therefore be seen as a natural product of this inevitable awakening to the falseness of today’s viciously divisive prophets. However dressed – be it in the smart buckled shoes of Colonial New England, or the corseted propriety of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Carry Nation or the contemporaneous Anti-cigarette League of Lucy Page Gaston, or in the stern black jackboots of the flamingly anti-smoking Third Reich, or the dull grey flannel of Joe McCarthy and the dour House Un-American Affairs Committee, or the same as worn by a Strom Thurmond or George Wallace – however accoutered and however acclaimed, however self-assured and self-righteous, however much viewed as socially and politically correct, no matter how successful in their ideological heydays – society’s bigots, fanatics, and tyrants always and necessarily come to be recognized and reviled by the public at large. Such is the case again today as ever. The time has come for humanity at large to reassert itself and Christopher Snowdon has written a book for this time.

The narrative thrust of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist can clearly be illustrated by a rundown of its fourteen chapter titles, which follows here:

1 – ‘Joyful news from the new found world’ (1492-1880)

2 – ‘A smokeless America by 1925′ (1880-1919)

3 – ‘Your body belongs to the Fuhrer’ (1919-49)

4 – ‘Some women would prefer having small babies’ (1950-1969)

5 – ‘Smokers should be eliminated’ (1970-1978)

6 – ‘Nonsmokers arise!’ (1978-1986)

7 – ‘A smoke-free America by 2000 AD’ (1986-1992)

8 – ‘This is a crusade, not a lawsuit’ (1992-1998)

9 – ‘I have a comic book mentality’ (1998)

10 – ‘Don’t let them fool you’ (1999-2003)

11 – ‘How do you sleep at night Mr Blair?’ (2004-06)

12 – ‘Developed societies are paternalistic’ (2003-2006)

13 – ‘The next logical step’

14 – ‘The scene is set for the final curtain’

All of the chapter titles are in the form of quotations taken from each era. Our regular readers may recognize many of them at a glance. The cognoscenti will not be disappointed in the presentation of the subjects at issue. For those less familiar with the topics, prepare to learn a lot, and much in the nature of revelations, from a dedicated researcher and lucid prose stylist. In fact, there is something new for every reader, both in terms of perspective and of fact, in this treatise. Steeped as we may be in the general lore, we at FORCES were greatly pleased to learn new and fascinating things from Mister Snowdon.

The book is a feast, including as readers of these pages have come to expect from original articles by Christopher Snowdon featured here, trenchant debunking of “anti” pseudo-science. One cannot be too critical of that reeking pile. Readers will find Velvet Glove, Iron Fist highly provocative and also consistently entertaining. Snowdon’s book invites debate on numerous points while discussing all that is most relevant. Mister Snowdon’s website provides exceptional and detailed introduction, so we conclude in recommending once again, visit there if you have not done so already, watch there also for news of publication, and do not miss this one when it comes to print.