Book Review: The Devil's Playbook

Lauren Etter, The Devil's Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation. New York: Crown, 2021. ISBN: 9780593237984.

 

Genre: nonfiction

Subgenre: business, crime

Format: hardcover book

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library

This was a long but interesting book. This is the tale of a small start up company that became the e-cigarette juggernaut known as Juul. It is also the tale of Altria, the big tobacco company, parent company of Marlboro and other brands, that found itself losing customers to Juul and unable to innovate with a competitive alternative. So Altria's CEO's plan? If you can't innovate buy the innovating competitor, and that was his plan: buy Juul at any cost. That is not all. Juul may have started with good intentions, at least according to its founders, but in the end it caused a massive nicotine addiction epidemic. 

The book's story goes from the days after the wars against Big Tobacco. The Master Settlement (you can view the settlement and other related documents here via UCSF, University of California-San Francisco, which made a searchable archive for them) is in place after tobacco companies settled with states the various lawsuits over the health hazards of tobacco. By now, the tobacco companies are abiding by the settlement, putting youth prevention programs in place, and even youth smoking numbers are going down. Things seem pretty tranquil. Into this environment two Silicon Valley guys out of Stanford get an idea: can they create a product to deliver the nicotine fix smokers crave without the harms of burning tobacco? They went on to create what eventually became Juul. Yet in typical Silicon Valley fashion of "move fast and break things" they did more than break a few things. Sure, millionaires were made, but teens died along the way while Juul cared more about coolness, sales, and greed. Keep in mind at the time e-cigarettes were not regulated as other tobacco products are regulated, so Juul started with a huge commercial advantage. By the time the government and regulators got a clue, a lot of teens were harmed for life or dead. By the time Juul fell the damage and destruction were done. The company did move fast, and they broke a lot of lives and families.

This is a lengthy book, but it presents a lot of detail. It does so in a mostly linear narrative. The narrative goes between Juul, Altria, government agencies like the FDA, and later parents forming advocacy groups to oppose Juul and vaping after seeing the damage to their children. I found it interesting that these parents were mostly rich privileged families from Silicon Valley with a lot of money and a lot of connections worried about their kids in their fancy high tuition private schools. We need to be honest here. Had these been poor inner city kids or rural kids dying, the advocacy would likely have been less effective or not happened at all. Money and access to it made a big difference for these parents to form nonprofit groups, pay consultants, lobby politicians, etc. Naturally, the other side had deep pockets as well. I found interesting also how this book illustrates how politics and business work, often hand in hand and on the basis of who has enough money to outlast the other side. Still, when your product is killing young people, or at least allegedly so, a deep wallet and lobbyists many not be as helpful. 

Nowadays we often talk about companies like Facebook and their disregard for the damages to society they cause. Before Facebook's recent revelations (as of this post), Juul was following that same disregard for the damage they were causing. The book presents a story of hubris and Silicon Valley greed and arrogance. They figured, mistakenly so, they could ask forgiveness rather than ask permission. Turns out they got it wrong. Even as tobacco experts warned them, based on experience, the Juul founders and the company plowed on. There was money to be made and a cool reputation to maintain. We get a lesson on the consequences of hubris and why breaking things may not be a good idea. 

We also get a bit of a tragedy for Altria. Unable to innovate in the e-cig market, their own product a flop, CEO Howard Willard becomes obsessed with buying Juul, or at least getting an ownership stake. By the time he did manage to get a minority stake (hoping to get the rest of the pie later), it was already too late. This was a case of an old company trying to "innovate" by buying competitors (see also Disney and its acquisitions in recent years). Except Willard's deals almost ruined Altria (not that I have that much sympathy for them but I digress), cost the company way too much, caused layoffs at Altria, plus it brought them new legal problems. A lesson in greed and obsession. 

The story overall makes for good drama. We get a look at human nature, often at its worst motivated by greed and a selfish disregard for others. We get emotion as we see the stories of young people dying as parents try to figure out how to save them. We get drama from government agencies too slow to act even as some in said government try to do something. It is an engaging story, and the author tells it very well This story reads like a good dramatic film. To be honest, I would not be surprised if some streaming service picks this up for a screen adaptation. It certainly has the ingredients of a good story and dramatic narrative. 

The book includes extensive endnotes for each chapter for documentation. It may be drama, but it is real. The text can be a bit dense, but it manages to keep your interest overall. I really like this one. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

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Additional reading notes: 

 

Bowen and Monsees, future Juule founders, first asked why a cigarette that would not kill people was not made yet. Why had the tobacco companies not done it? Turns out the companies tried and failed. How did Bowen and Monsees know? The had access to the Master Settlement Agreement and its trove of documents, which by then were searchable online (see link above): 

"The archives contained internal emails and handwritten letters, scientific studies and business plans, patents and product research, all of which opened an incredible window into a secretive industry that had spent billions of dollars over nearly half a century trying to develop a new, noncombustible cigarette" (24). 

That is also a nice shout out for universities and their archives and libraries digitizing things for public access. 

Meanwhile, Altria had not really created anything new since 1954 when it created Marlboro: 

"Other than Marlboro, almost every product in the company's portfolio had been purchased, not innovated. That bruising fact, now more than ever, weighed on everybody as cigarette sales continued to slide" (93). 

The basic cigarette company strategy: 

"Grow market share through sales trench warfare, while increasing cigarette prices just enough every year to offset declines and increased taxes, but not enough to spook customers" (93). 

By 2019, things took a dive: 

"Then on August 23, the state of Illinois reported the death of an adult who'd had a vaping-related lung injury. It was the nation's first vaping-related death. That day, the CDC also announced that there were now nearly two hundred cases of potential vaping-related lung injury in twenty-two states. For the first time, there was what seemed like a nationwide panic. Vaping was causing death and sick kids. And unfortunately for Juul, Juuling had become shorthand for vaping" (328).

Tough for Juul, but between their pursuit of cool, aggressive use of social media, appeals to young people they failed to see, willingly at first, as an issue, plus a haphazard operation that did little research, well, this was bound to happen. They dug their own grave at the expense of those lives. 

Juul was a victim of its own reputation, which they created and fostered: 

"The evidence would soon become clearer that while Juuling was commonplace, it was likely bootlegged cannabis products that had been the culprit of the lung injuries. Still, at least wasn't inconceivable that but for Juuling, the boy might never have taken up vaping other substances. Either way, the damage to Juul's reputation had been done-- vaping and Juuling had become synonymous in the eye of the public" (347). 

That is kind of of how googling became a verb associated to doing web searching, except the folks at Juul really pushed it. 

 

By the way, on February 5, 2020, a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee held hearings on "Vaping in America." In the meantime, down the hall was another hearing (probably this one best I can tell) on "the virus [that] had ripped through China but hadn't registered in the United States as a credible threat" (379).

And to be honest, once COVID-19 overtook the United States, this vaping issue mostly fell off the radar like so many issues did.

 

Booknote: Bag Man

Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz, Bag Man: the Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up & Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House. New York: Crown, 2020. ISBN: 9780593136683.

 

Genre: U.S. history

Subgenre: politics, crime, corruption

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

 

When I picked this book up, I knew little about Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon's vice president. I knew that Nixon was a serious political animal and a big asshole. I had no idea that Agnew was just as big if not a bigger corrupt asshole than Nixon. A friend of mine who lived during Nixon's time recalls knowing that Agnew resigned but not knowing at the time exactly why. They recalled it was something or other about taxes. Like them, most if not all Americans never knew the full truth until years later. Agnew managed to become an asterisk in history books. He was the VP who resigned in disgrace, but no one really knows why. This book fixes that ad reveals in full the extent of Agnew's crimes and the deal that allowed him to resign without time in prison. I also picked up this book because Rachel Maddow is one of the authors, and I did like her previous book Drift (link to my review).

The book is organized as follows: 

• Prologue
• 16 chapters
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgements, A Note on Sources, and Notes

A big reason this book is possible is that a lot of material was available for researchers. Nixon was notorious for having the White House wiretapped. Others kept notes and even audio diaries. A lot of documents were preserved, some in attics to hide them from an FBI that was more interested in helping Agnew than in the truth. Maddow and Yarvitz went through a lot of that material with close attention. They also interviewed men involved in the story including the Baltimore prosecutors, Agnew's defense attorney, and others. As the authors write, 

"Bag Man is the product of hours of sit-down interviews with many of those involved in the Agnew case, historical research conducted at archives and libraries across the country, and original reporting" (267). 

The result is this book that reveals in detail Agnew's greed, evil, and malfeasance. 

This is not just a political book. This is a seriously good and engaging narrative. The book reads like a good true crime tale with drama, intrigue, tension, and corruption. We know the story ends with Agnew's resignation, but the drama is in exactly how we get there. This book also reads like a great political thriller, and all of it is true. This is a book that in the right hands could make a good political drama film. 

As I mentioned, the narrative is good and engaging. The story takes us from Agnew's rise to vice president under Nixon to Agnew's fall from grace and his sort of attempts to remake himself after leaving D.C. We also get the story of the prosecutors and federal agents putting the case together under pressure. The Watergate scandal was blowing up at the time, and the prosecutors after Agnew knew that it was very likely that Nixon would be impeached and removed. It was imperative to remove Agnew from the line of succession to avoid on crook being replaced by a bigger thief. That drama and tension make for a great story. 

Another reason to read this book especially now is that Agnew's story has parallel lessons for today, especially after the U.S. survived the disastrous Trump presidency. If you think Trump's, and the GOP's, tactics of bullying, blustering, attacking the press, etc. were bad and never seen before, well hang on because Spiro Agnew basically wrote the book on that sort of behavior. If I did not know better, I might have said Trump copied Agnew's playbook, but I highly doubt Trump read this book (or any other book for that matter). Still, the lessons are there for those willing to study and learn. The authors write, 

"Ultimately, Agnew failed to save himself. But he left a scorched-earth battle plan for any corrupt officeholder that followed:

Attack the investigation as a witch hunt.

Obstruct it behind the scenes.

Attack individual investigators in personal terms.

Attack the credibility of the Justice Department itself. 

Attack the media informing Americans about the case. 

Punch back. Hard. Until either you are broken or the system is" (244-245). 

Other politicians between then and now  used pages of this playbook, but Trump really scorched the earth much as Agnew attempted to do. Both men also had strong and loud political bases, including large segments of Republican women. This story not only reveals what really happened back then. It also sheds light on our current times, and it shows how vulnerable the U.S. is to bullying corrupt populists. Sadly it also reinforces that in the U.S. it really is "and justice for some." Those in higher positions of power and/or wealth have little to worry about things like jail time. Though Agnew went on to other deals and schemes, he ended up a broken man. Trump will likely go on to other schemes and grifts, but his luster is certainly faded. He is becoming damaged goods. Unlike Agnew, he does not have a deal to spare him jail time, well, at least not as of this blog post. We'll have to wait and see. 

Overall this is a solid work of research and history combined with a great narrative that you just have to keep reading. I stayed up way late to finish this one, and I do not do that for just any book. If you are interested in U.S. history and politics, and perhaps also understand the current times in the U.S. a bit better, you need to pick this book up now. This was excellent, and I am happy to recommend it to anyone. 

5 out of 5 stars.

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Additional reading notes: 

Agnew's story defined: 

"Agnew's is a tale of a thoroughly corrupt occupant of the White House whose crimes are discovered by his own Justice Department and who then clings to high office by using the power and prerogative of that same office to save himself" (18). 

Another legacy of Agnew: 

"The vice presidency of Spiro T. Agnew marked the birth of the bruising, know-nothing confrontational conservatism that has been eating the lunch of seemly, Kiwanis Club Republicanism ever since" (27). 

A trait Agnew and Trump had in common was their passion for golfing: 

"Spiro Agnew managed to turn his 'goodwill world tour' into a taxpayer-funded taste test of the world's finest fairways-- and all with the news cameras rolling. While Richard Nixon watched, in horror, back home" (135-136). 

This book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenge: 

Booknote: The Gallery of Regrettable Food

James Lileks, The Gallery of Regrettable Food. New York: Crown Publishers, 2001. ISBN: 0-609-60782-0.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: humor, retro, cookbooks, food
Format: coffee table style hardback
Source: Borrowed from the Madison County (KY) Public Library

At the time I checked this book out of my local public library, I wanted some light humor, and this book fit the bill nicely. The book is a bit like a coffee table book in terms of size and format.

The author began his work and calling when he found an old recipe book in his mom's house: Specialties of the House by the North Dakota State Wheat Commission (you can actually find copies of this on Amazon and Ebay. I tried to find a free copy; that was not an easy task. Apparently the book is somewhat collectible now, and no one has scanned it). By today's standards, the recipes in that book look and appear atrocious; one has to wonder about they ate back then. The author did, and he began collecting old cookbooks, sharing recipes and photos and art from these "trade groups." These books try to appear "official" or even government-approved, but in reality they are made by "trade groups" trying to get you to use their products, often with truly ghastly results. To top things off, Lileks not only shows the recipes, photos, and art of the time; he also adds his seriously sarcastic, humorous running commentary. Additionally, he displays his work on his own website (www.lileks.com). So yea, this book is yet another Internet page/project that got a book deal. On a positive note, this book is much better than most entries in the "internet/niche blogger" book deal genre.

One strength of the book is in the art and photography. Some of the photos and/or recipe art look like things you would not feed a dog. Lileks captures them in all their glorious and horrifying splendor.

Another strength of the book is his humorous commentary. However, this can be very inconsistent. When he gets it right, it's funny and can make you laugh. The problem is Lileks can have a tendency to overdo that humor, and when he does it, he beats it into the ground to the point of annoyance (often, for a reader it becomes "yes dude, we got the joke five pages ago, shut it and move on already"). This inconsistency is why I could not rate this book higher than I did. Still, overall, it is a good, entertaining work of retro humor.

The book is simply arranged with a preface and 27 short chapters. Some chapter topics are:

• "What's Black and White and Dead All Over?"
• "Cooking with 7-UP" 
• "The A.1 Guide to Better Sex"
• "Glop in a Pot"
• "Famous Chefs Forced to Use Marshmallows"

In the end, I really liked the book despite a flaw or two. If you want to buy your copy, go ahead, though I'd suggest borrowing it or getting it second hand if you must.

4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Glock

Paul Barrett, Glock: The Rise of America's Gun. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 9780307719935. 

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: history, biography, politics, firearms, inventions
Format: hardback
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County Public Library

This book on the Glock pistol and its rise to become the most popular handgun in the United States is quite interesting. The book is not just the history of how Gaston Glock invented the pistol bearing his name and how his company managed to take the U.S. market. It is also a look at American gun culture and its obsession with firearms as well as an overview of late 20th century gun politics and events in the United States. Some of those events I actually can recall.

Glock is the Austrian pistol that pretty much singlehandedly changed America's gun preferences. For a long time, Americans were in love with their revolvers. Sure, some folks used semiautomatics from other brands. However, once Americans warmed up to the "ugly" Austrian gun, they bought Glocks in droves and made the gun's inventor, Gaston Glock, a very rich man. Glock's other big coup in the United States was becoming the pistol of choice for cops and law enforcement. That cachet just helped the gun further in winning the day in the United States.

Though at times the book offers some technical details to help us understand how Glock's invention works and why it was and remains so innovative, such details remain fairly accessible to the common reader. You do not have to be a gun enthusiast to appreciate Mr. Glock's genius in creating a very easy to use and to carry firearm, a gun that is much less complicated than other semiautomatics. Now, I am not a gun enthusiast, but the author's descriptions and details make curious enough I'd want to try a Glock pistol out. As I have no intention of buying one (or any firearm, plus I am on a librarian salary, and guns are not cheap), maybe I can find a friend who has one and is willing to teach me at a range. But I digress.

In addition, the book at times does read like a novel. The book is also a bit of biography of Gaston Glock and some of the people who worked for him and around him. Glock started from humble origins, but like many such types who come to wealth suddenly, he found himself corrupted by the money and power. So did some of the folks around him as the newfound wealth incited greed. In many ways, the story of Glock and his invention is a tale of corporate deeds and misdeeds and human greed. Heck, we even get strippers and lawsuits and assassination attempts along the way. Yet, in the end, Gaston Glock invented such a great high quality product that even if they screwed up things royally in the workplace the gun basically sells itself. In that sense, the Glock pistol is truly a tribute to the inventor's genius.

The book is definitely a solid piece of history and reporting. Add to this the look at 20th century gun history and policy in the U.S., the lobbying, the lawsuits, the legislation, and the corporate maneuvers, and it all makes for interesting reading. Additionally, the book does include a selected bibliography that can help readers wanting to learn more.

4 out of 5 stars. 

As a final note, this book likely shares appeal factors with the following:

• Arms and the Dudes. (link to my review). 
• Charlie Wilson's War.
• Wiseguy (the basis of the film Goodfellas. Mostly for some of the parts on greed and shady deals).

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Additional reading notes:

From the book's bibliography, I am adding these two books to my TBR list:

• Bascunan, Rodrigo and Christian Pearce, Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent. 
• By the way, at one point, Barrett points out that Colt and Glock had a lot in common. 
• Feldman, Richard, Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist. 
• Feldman is featured quite prominently in Barrett's book.

Glock becomes the American handgun:

"The Glock, introduced in the 1980s, inherited all aspects of the American firearm heritage: It was seen as an instrument of law and security, but also menace, danger, and fear. It became the handgun of choice for cops and a favorite of some demented mass killers. Its black plastic-and-metal construction set it apart from everything else on the market, suggesting modernism and efficiency. The handgun is the weapon Americans really care about, and within a decade of arriving here, the Glock had become the ultimate American handgun" (21). 

In the gun industry, all publicity is good, and Glock illustrates that principle:

"The Glock's success illustrated that in the gun industry, all publicity is good publicity, and high-profile enmity from anti-gun forces is the best publicity of all" (50). 

The book also reveals secrets and debunks some myths. For instance, many people think that cops are highly trained with guns and are even gun enthusiasts. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, a big reason police departments switched to Glocks is that the guns are so easy to use even the less competent cops can use them:

"A dirty little secret of law enforcement is that many cops don't take range time seriously. And even in high-crime cities, the vast majority of officers go years, or even an entire career, without getting into a gunfight. The average officer is a mediocre shot, or worse" (55). 

Another reason Glock easily overtook the American gun industry was the usual American arrogance and complacency:

"The story was similar to that of the American auto industry; gun makers in the United States had lost ground to foreign competitors more diligent about engineering and quality control. That is how Toyota sneaked up on General Motors" (57). 

A bit on how Colt and Glock were similar:

"In many ways, Gaston Glock became the Sam Colt of the twentieth century. It is an assertion that might offend some American handgun historians and revolver loyalists But it is no exaggeration to say that a pair of Austrians--a reticent engineer and his ambitious salesman-- set about to remake the handgun business in the United States" (67). 

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This book qualifies for the following 2016 Reading Challenges: