ms. milov: i think for the closed captioning, it is a good thing to do. >> hi, good morning. thank you for being here. i wanted to ask you, there was an earlier analogy that was made in terms of civil rights and the rights of non-smokers, in terms of them pressing their agenda. what is your personal perspective on that, and do you feel it was a legitimate association or analogy? ms. milov: i think that, given the context of the 1970's, non-smokers' rights activists were in search of a vocabulary that ennobled their cause and the most morally hefty vocabulary of the day was the african-american freedom struggle, the civil rights movement. they took to that, and they used it. i suppose that cuts in a couple of directions. first, non-smokers did feel themselves to be oppressed. that oppression is clearly not the same thing that african-americans and experienced under jim crow, but perhaps was born out of a similar feeling that they felt they should be able to exist in public spaces, that they felt

[applause] miz -- miss -- ms. milov: thank you so much. it is such a privilege to come and speak at the national archives. the other day, i saw a tweet about today's event, and as a historian, it's kind of like having yourself name checked by beyonce. this is the mothership. thank you so much for coming. my book, "the cigarette: a political history, " seeks to understand tobacco in modern america, not through the lens of big tobacco in the machinations of industry, but through the efforts of everyday americans to get the government to intervene on their behalf. big tobacco is still an important part of the story, but by focusing on other actors, farmers, government officials, politicians, activists, workers and labor unions, the story of tobacco in the 20th century begins to look a lot different than if we were to understand it through the actions of tobacco alone. by taking a wide angled approach, my book suggests that far from being the product of corporate deception that was ultimately exposed by science, the cigarette was a product of