"Devastating. . . Baum's pointillist technique is highly effective in many ways. It reduces a complex story to bite-size morsels, often dramatic and sometimes outrageous. It brings the actors in the drama up close for the reader to cheer and hiss (mainly hiss). It banishes dull statistics from the text by summing up the more pointed ones in punchy chapter-ending lists. . . . A valuable work of reporting."



-- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times



"Sobering. . . . Baum has a good eye for absurdity."



-- Newsday



"There is no better briefing on this evil burlesque than Dan Baum's
richly anecdotal, statistics-saturated and more than occasionally
sarcastic aria of indignant muckraking, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on
Drugs and the Politics of Failure. It's as if Lincoln Steffens and Jonathan
Swift had teamed up for a miniseries. . . "



-- John Leonard, The Nation



"Mr. Baum has performed an important service in
laying out this history."



-- Dallas Morning News



"There are no unnamed sources or made-up names. Baum talked to former policy makers who reportedly had not spoken for the record before. He takes care to give words in quotation marks credibility, saying all reflect conversations recorded in writing or are dialogues remembered exactly. Baum's diligence, if we take him at his word, is most refreshing."



-- San Diego Union Tribune

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