The central argument of this book is that liberal ideals—of the individual as a “rational”, “self-possessed” person—structured rituals of smoking in turn of the century Montreal: “from the purchase of tobacco, to who was to smoke, to how one was supposed to smoke, to where one smoked” (p. 5). Tobacco connoisseurship emphasized moderation and exemplified gendered spatial and social norms. Until the First World War, smoking was almost wholly a masculine pastime; and tobacco connoisseurship was founded on a hierarchy of products and tastes, symbolizing wealth and power. The Cuban cigar topped the hierarchy, and Rudy provides a fascinating analysis of how “Cuban” as a cultural category was created through the imagining of race, gender and terroir (the knowledge of the farmer, the quality of his soil and the suitability of the climate for growing tobacco). For working-class men, pipe smoking was a central part of cultural life, although there is less evidence of the hierarchies and rituals involved.

Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as Rudy shows, these liberal notions of smoking were challenged from three directions: the Women's Christian Temperance Union's (WCTU) anti-smoking movement, the growth of mass produced cigarette consumption, and an increase in smoking among women. In broad outline, The freedom to smoke recalls Matthew Hilton's Smoking in British popular culture 1800–2000, and Rudy acknowledges this influence. However, the distinguishing feature of The freedom to smoke is its permeating analysis of ethnicity; indeed, the backdrop of Montreal is perfect for cross-cultural comparisons. Differences between Anglophone and francophone female smoking are tantalizingly touched upon, and racial and religious differences teased out in discussion of oppositional discourses to smoking more generally. As in the United States, the WCTU's prohibitionist stance was shaped by social gospel Protestantism, but also by national concerns about physical and moral degeneration. French Canadian Catholics opposed juvenile smoking on degeneration grounds, but supported moderation among adults. But most compelling is Rudy's analysis of the social position of rural French Canadian tobacco, le tabac canadien, which provided a counter culture to liberal smoking norms.

The liberal construction of smoking appears to be an Anglophone one, and while elements of the Francophone population subscribed to these notions, Rudy details the enduring popularity of rural French Canadian tobacco. Although rejected by the urban liberal bourgeoisie, rural French Canadian tobacco had a rich heritage. Home-grown and characterized by small-scale distribution methods, it remained untaxed by the Canadian government until well into the twentieth century, an anomaly in the western world. Rudy explores the clash of urban and rural cultures, as many rural French Canadians migrated to the city. He also shows the march of industrial agriculture and the influence of multinational corporations, as distinctive French Canadian tobacco was transformed into a blander product, suitable for cross-cultural, even international, tastes.

The chronology is hard to follow at times, because many developments were contemporaneous, and the interwar period is only sketched in. Detail on the multinationals and their history in Canada is frustratingly thin: it is not clear, for example, what, if any, relation Imperial Tobacco bore to the British company of the same name, or how they came to take over a large American concern in Canada. Standardization crossed national, as well as cultural, boundaries, but it is notable in Montreal that this occurred more slowly than in Britain or the United States: soldiers in the First World War retained allegiance to the pipe and le tabac canadien well after their return to civilian life. In the end, however, Rudy's book is less about urban liberal ideals dominating rural heritage, than the eclipse of both.