Nan Enstad creates an intimate cultural history to reveal the myriad cross-cultural encounters in corporate life prior to World War II. In her account of corporate innovation and expansion, Enstad uncovers a corporate network rooted in Jim Crow segregation that stretched between the United States and China. Hundreds of white southerners, bright leaf tobacco, cigarettes, and industry expertise flowed through this multinational network. Cigarettes, Inc. teemswith a global cast—from Egyptian, American, and Chinese entrepreneurs to a multiracial set of farmers, merchants, factory workers, marketers, and even baseball players, jazz musicians, and sex workers.