Tobacco consumption and modern war in Britain, c. 1850 – c. 1950
Michael has published widely on the social and cultural history of the First World War, including articles and a monograph on topics related to anti-German sentiment and patriotism, smoking in the trenches of the Western Front and the bombardment of civilians in coastal communities. The common thread in this work is the issue of wartime endurance and resilience, for both combatants and civilians.
His current research (2022 onwards) focuses on smoking culture, tobacco consumption and provision in British military and civilian contexts during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the use of tobacco as a mild narcotic in situations of combat and war strain, as well as its symbolism in codes of martial masculinity and patriotism.
This ongoing work is pushing further than the First World War, to take into account other modern conflicts involving Britain where the consumption of tobacco was an important component of military and civilian experience, including the Crimean War (1853-6), Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), First World War (1914-18) and Second World War (1939-45).
This work contends that tobacco consumption, particularly cigarette smoking, was incorporated into pre-war and wartime understandings of military and civilian welfare, wellbeing and comportment, looming large in efforts to maintain ‘morale’ and encourage the endurance of wartime actors. The project includes insights into Victorian and Edwardian medical perspectives regarding tobacco and its use in war; the material and visual culture of tobacco/smoking; smoking as a cultural-social practice; and tobacco as a medicinal-narcotic product consumed for its assumed soothing properties in wartime settings.
The primary output from this project will be a monograph – this is now under contract with Manchester University Press, in the Cultural History of Modern War series.
Recent resources and outputs from the project:
‘A Panacea for Wounds and Panic: Tobacco, Alcohol and Well–being on the Western Front during the First World War’, in Well–being Past and Present: The History and Contemporary Practice of a Cultural Phenomenon in Britain, eds. Siobhán Hyland, Paul Jackson and Mark Rothery (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), pp. 123-139. More information here.
‘Smoking and Vaping in Historical Perspective’, opinion article for History & Policy, 3 Feb. 2025. Read it here.
‘Young people took up smoking during the pandemic – how tobacco has been used for stress relief for more than a century’, The Conversation, 29 Dec. 2023. Read it here.
‘The ‘pernicious habit’: the enduring popularity of nicotine in everyday life’. Open Societal Challenges policy-focused project.
Dr. Michael Reeve 